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You were never one for sex, and Calde understood. You didn’t need it to be close. But you did need it to make an egg together. To start this. And as you calmed down, back in control, and Calde looked at you, his eyes were filled with love and need.\n\n<<ShareThisWithYou>>

“Is everything okay?” you asked.\n\n\t“Yes and no,” he said. “I have a lot to think about.”\n\n\t“We can think about it together,” you said.\n\n\tCalde smiled a little. “Right… I suppose we should.”\n\n<<MotherCalled>>\n

Changing Together\n\na story about a relationship\n\nby Alexis "poetfox" Long\n\nThank you for playing!

“It will pass,” you say, for yourself as much as him. “This won’t last forever…”\n\n<<BeSelfish>>

“You gonna get to breathe fire?” Mika asks.\n\n\t“I… guess so,” you say. You’d only seen Calde do it once. It felt really awkward to ask to see it, so you never had. It’s not like it was really important, even if it would be cool. But one evening, a sunset walk to help digest dinner had turned into laying on the grass in the park, and looking at the stars. You couldn’t make out many stars, still so close to the city, but you really didn’t care. You were pressed up against Calde, keeping yourself warm and comfortable. You felt like you could fall asleep at any moment.\n\nYou were woken up by Calde chuckling out of nowhere.\n\n“What?” you asked.\n\n“Just… thinking about how we got here. How this all…” He made a little gesture with his claw into the air. “I don’t know. Just one of those nights where I wonder how this all happened.”\n\n“Do you think about that a lot?” you asked.\n\n“Sometimes,” he said. “When I’m really comfortable. When you’re here and I don’t have to hold back and I know I won’t scare you or weird you out.”\n\n[[You weird me out all the time. But that's just because you're a weirdo history nerd.]]\n[[I have moments where it's hard to believe we're together, too.]]\n

You were one of the few taking notes. His voice was powerful and full of energy. You didn’t know what exactly you had expected, but after the first few minutes, you found yourself chuckling quietly. He might be big, on all fours, covered in scales, but he was just a nerd. You understood nerds. And thankfully, he was a nerd on an interesting subject. High school hadn’t spoken of dragons in anything but the vaguest terms, and now already you were hearing things about their history you did not know.\n\n<<AttendanceDropped>>

“Like, wizards and spell slots and magic missile magic?” you asked.\n\n\t“Well, I mean, not exactly like that, but it was used in war a lot way back when…” he said. “But it’s not like wands and things, if that’s what you mean.”\n\n\t“So you can’t get me a Wand of Magic Missile, then.”\n\n\t“No,” Calde said.\n\n\t“But still, magic.”\n\n\t“Yes.”\n\n<<ANaturalResource>>\n

\t“Is it going to upset your stomach?” he asks.\n\n\t“Yeah,” you say. “It’s… it’s pretty well always now.”\n\n\tHe nods. You know he wants to tell you to just stop, then, but you’ve been partners long enough to understand when something is important to the other. He knows this is important to you. In the same way it’s important to you to stay in this small apartment for as long as you can, even though it’s a bit of a hassle for him to get in and out with his larger body.\n\n\t“You’re probably going to start showing soon,” he says.\n\n\tYou chuckle, putting one hand on your belly. You already looked quite pregnant. “I already am showing.”\n\n\t“I mean, in other ways,” he says. “If your stomach is already changing.”\n\n\tYou nod. “Tongue feels too big, too, sometimes…”\n\n\t“Oh really?” he says, grinning, clearly thinking improper things.\n\n\tYou chuckle and shake your head.\n\n\t“...anyway, I’ll let you cook and call for food,” he says. “At least eat in here with me, though?”\n\n\t“Of course,” you say.\n\n\tHe leaves you to it.\n\n---\n\n\tYou met him in college. It is almost embarrassing to tell it. You worry it’s somewhat cliche or creepy. But it was a big deal, to you. Few colleges taught draconic history. Fewer still had a dragon teaching it. There just weren’t enough dragons in the world. Calde’s lower-level classes tended to fill up fast, from people who just wanted to gawk. You would have been lying if you hadn’t forced your way in partially for that reason. But you were also interested. Everyone loved Sylph in the movies, of course, and you were no exception, but it was very obvious, to you anyway, she was just hamming it up for the camera most days. You didn’t feel like it gave you much of an actual understanding of who dragons were, so to speak.\n\n\tThe first day of class, it was held in a huge lecture hall to hold all the students.\n[[You stared with the rest of the class.]]\n[[You were one of the few taking notes.]]

“But what about the other day?” you ask. “I didn’t mean to destroy the table.”\n\n\t“Well, that was… that was different,” he says, thinking. “I mean, you didn’t know you had those muscles and things at that point…”\n\n\t“I still didn’t know until you just told me,” you say.\n\n\tCalde chuckles a little. “Good point…”\n\n<<CaldeGetsBehind>>

“Is that what we’re doing?” you asked.\n\n\t“I fully apologize if I’m reading signals wrong,” Calde said, looking a bit embarrassed. “Dating has never really been a thing I’ve done, you understand. But it feels like it, to me.”\n\n\t“Just feels wrong, seeing as you were my teacher,” you said, embarrassed.\n\n\t“That was over a year ago,” Calde said. “Surely there’s some sort of time limit on that.”\n\n\tYou smiled, softly. “I mean, I can hope so. But you have been my teacher longer than otherwise.”\n\n\t“True…” Calde said.\n\n<<OfficiallyDating>>

“So… that means we’re officially dating, then?” you asked.\n\n\tCalde nodded. “Officially.”\n\n\t“Is that weird, with us being different species?” you asked then, in your naivety.\n\n“Less than you might think,” Calde said, looking embarrassed.\n\n“I mean, I clearly am down with weird,” you added.\n\n“Clearly,” Calde said, face turning to a smile.\n\nYou were so full of excitement you couldn’t sleep that night.\n\n\tThat was your life for the next year. Being official. He was easily your favorite person, and it made you happy you were his. You often got looks, and your parents were always a little awkward around Calde, but they were happy for you, and more important, you were happy.\n\n\tOne night, at dinner, though, that changed.\n\n\tCalde had been clearly thinking a lot about something that week. He was very distracted. You didn’t want to pry. But tonight he wasn’t even touching his food.\n[[Is everything okay?]]\n[[Something's clearly bothering you.]]

“How long did it take you to figure all this out?” you ask.\n\n\t“Weeks,” Calde says. “But I was really eager, so I kept at it. Made me… feel like an adult, I guess. Which is kind of silly, I suppose.”\n\n\t“Kind of adorable,” you say, picturing a little Calde trying to spew fire this way and that.\n\n\tCalde laughs, clearly a bit embarrassed. “Well, maybe a little.”\n\n<<HeadToBBQ>>

Dinner was fine, even though you had to stand the whole time. Basically all meat, as Calde always ate. You wondered if that’s what you would eat, in the future. You knew a lot of human food, especially greens, made Calde feel ill.\n\n\tDuring the meal, Calde tried to make small talk with his mother. He would occasionally try to include you, but his mother was having very little of it.\n\n\t“Mother,” Calde said after a particularly obvious refusal to respond to you. “Are you going to be like this all night?”\n\n\t“My little dragonet, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Alenne said.\n\n\t“My partner and I came a long way to see you, and you’re being awful,” he said.\n\n\t“If you’re for some reason worried I won’t give my essence, I’ll gladly correct you,” she said. “I am, of course, overjoyed that you’re finally wanting to mate. It’s getting to a point where you’re going to have trouble even filling your pitiful quota.”\n\n\t“I’m barely three hundred,” Calde said.\n\n\t“I was well on my way to hatching my fourth egg at three hundred,” Alenne said.\n\n\t“I’m not like you, Mother, I’m not going to go above and beyond my quota.”\n\n\t“Ah, yes, I forgot. You need so much free time so you can teach humans our secrets and histories.”\n\n\t“It’s important they know about all that. It’s important to share that stuff if we’re going to get along.” Calde was clearly about to lose his cool.\n[[Calde is doing very important work.]]\n[[I'm not going to break up with Calde, so you're going to have to get used to me.]]

“Pretty soon I won’t be able to wear clothes at all,” you say. “Then I won’t have to worry about looking like a mess. I’ll just look like… something.”\n\n\t“You just look like you’re having a day off,” Calde says, trying to be nice about it. “And you still can wear clothes, if you want. I mean, you know I do somewhat to put everyone at the college at ease… you could go farther than my little flashes, if you wanted. I know tailors.”\n\n\t“Maybe,” you say.\n\n<<TakesYouIn>>\n

“I am buying a million tacos, and then you’re explaining this,” Mika says.\n\n\tYou both get food. Mika tries to buy you a bunch of weird tacos, and you try very nicely to turn her down.\n\n\t“I can’t eat some of that anymore,” you explain.\n\n\t“Like, what part?” she asks.\n\n\t“Just… I’ll just get my own,” you say, feeling embarrassed.\n\n\t“Yeah, sure.”\n\n\tYou both sit down, and you’re about to start eating when Mika stops you. “Explain. Please.”\n\n\tYou give your best explanation of the situation.\n\n\t“So you’re really having Calde’s baby?” she says before chomping into another taco.\n\n\tYou nod, finally getting to eat, forking pulled pork into your mouth.\n\n\t“Going to have bunches of little lizards running around?” Mika says, chuckling.\n\n\t“At least three, anyway,” you say.\n\n\t“Dang.” Mika looks lost in thought for a bit. “So my buddy’s a dragon now.”\n[[Well, eventually. Soon.]]\n[[I'm going to do all the dragon things.]]

“Is it really going to be that bad?” you asked.\n\n\t“I don’t think so,” he said. “She’ll… well, she’ll see you as a person as soon as I tell her about our plans.”\n\n\t“And if I decide not to go through with them? Does she get bad then?”\n\n\t“Then we’ll just avoid her for a few decades,” Calde said, frowning. “Whatever it takes.”\n\n\t“Thank you,” you said, moving to kiss him softly on the side of the snout. “That’s a big sacrifice.”\n\n\t“Not a sacrifice,” he said. “Or at least, one I want to make… I don’t want to hear her badmouthing you any more than I want you to hear it.”\n\n<<RentedAVan>>\n

“You were always so curious, but never about this stuff,” he said softly. “You wanted to know me… and I’m thankful…”\n\n\t“Heck yeah, fire breath!” Mika says, snapping you out of the memory before wadding up her last taco half and putting it into her mouth.\n\n\tYou nod and smile.\n\n\tYou eventually part ways and head home. You’re feeling a little better as you get to bed. And Calde will be home tomorrow evening.\n\n\tBut in the morning, when you wake up, you can’t talk.\n\n\tYou look in the mirror and touch the half-formed snout on your face. Your lips don’t really move with your face like this. You can make sounds, but you can’t form words.\n\n\tWhile you’re testing the extent of what you can currently say, a tooth falls out. You pick it up off the floor.\n\n\tYou sit down on the edge of your bed, feeling lightheaded.\n\n[[You decide to call in to work.]]\n[[You decide to tough it out.]]

“It wasn’t that hard,” you say.\n\n\tCalde looks at you, incredulous.\n\n\tYou chuckle. “Well, maybe a little hard.”\n\n\t“Want to try?” Calde asks.\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n<<Don'tHaveAnEasier>>\n

“I’m sorry…” you say. “But we’re here now.”\n\n\t“Yes. Good.” Mika takes a moment. “Real talk, you look like a monster, with the neck and the claws and stuff.”\n[[Thanks for that.]]\n[[I'm thinking my teeth are going to get real sharp next.]]\n

“Totally worth it, though,” you say with confidence.\n\n\tMika laughs. “How do you even know? This egg hasn’t even hatched yet.”\n\n\t“I can tell,” you say. “I can feel it.”\n\n\t“Dragonsense,” Mika says.\n\n\t“Sure,” you say.\n\n<<YouLookGreatNow>>\n

“That was beautiful,” you said.\n\nCalde looked away, embarrassed, but happy.\n\n<<AlwaysSoCurious>>

“Maybe we should just do that instead. That sounds more fun,” you said.\n\n\tCalde grinned. “What, just napping the whole weekend, skin to scale?”\n\n\t“Sounds heavenly,” you said, smiling back. “We could use the break.”\n\n\tCalde sighed. “We should go, though… we need her help if we’re going to do this. And maybe you two can talk about the whole process. I am to understand that’s… that’s normally how it goes.”\n\n\t“Oh right. She wasn’t always a dragon,” you said, realizing.\n\n\tCalde nodded. “Centuries ago, now, but I’m sure she’ll tell you the whole story…”\n\n<<RentedAVan>>

“Of course,” you said.\n\n<<NoddedAndKnocked>>

“I’m sorry to put you through all this trouble,” you say. “I know this is all… weird.”\n\n\t“Yep,” your boss says. “But hey, that’s life. Sometimes, I suppose. Apparently for you, that’s life. And I like you, and you’re a good worker, and I’d go through all the trouble for a…” she hesitates on the word, but then uses it anyway, “a human having family stuff like this, so I’m for sure going to do it for you.”\n\n\t“Thank you…” you say, a bit overwhelmed by that.\n\n<<GoHomeGetSomeRest>>\n

“I have no idea,” you said. “She told me a lot, but I’m worried I’m forgetting half of it.”\n\n\t“What do you remember?” he asked.\n\n\t“I think she said my eyes were going to pop out at one point,” you said.\n\n\t“What? No,” Calde said. “That’s not right.”\n\n\t“Or maybe they’d just feel that way.”\n\n\tCalde put a claw on your stomach, and you closed your eyes.\n\n<<PointOfThatTradition>>

Changing Together

You both sat there in silence for a while. The food was cold. There was a tension between you and Calde that was very rare. There was still something left unsaid.\n\n\t“I didn’t realize how much all this was weighing on me,” he said softly. “I knew you’d understand, but I just… couldn’t risk you not…”\n\n\tYou nodded. “Well, you told me now. That’s what’s important.”\n\n\tCalde smiled softly. “Yeah.” He took a big breath. “So. Would you like to be a dragon?”\n\n\tYou couldn’t find any words. The question was… a lot to take in, especially on top of everything else.\n\n\t“Because of the rationing, you’d have to lay three eggs, at least, which is… I mean, I know you have a career so that would be hard, maybe, but they could be our eggs, if you wanted… and maybe it’s not the kind of human family you said you wanted earlier but maybe it would… be… maybe it would be something…”\n\n\t“I…” you said, still struggling for words.\n\n\t“I just… I don’t want to find someone else for my quota… because I have you… but I understand if this is too much…”\n[[You know I'm not... capable of that, right?]]\n[[Is this... is this how it always goes?]]\n

\tYou both ended up just curling up on the couch for a long time. You aren’t sure when you fell asleep, but as you wake up the next morning, it’s clear Calde didn’t dare move and wake you, because he’s still there.\n\n\tHe smiles softly. You smile back.\n\n\tYou are a little late for work, but it’s alright.\n\n\tThe next week involves Calde worrying a lot. He has clearly made as much space as possible in his schedule for you, spending every night and morning over at your apartment, which you appreciate, even if you don’t think it’s necessary. But he has a conference coming up that he’s speaking at, one planned months ago, before you were even discussing getting pregnant. He’ll be gone for three days. And your hair, all over, is falling out.\n\n\tTo be fair, after the initial clumps on your pillow caught you off-guard one morning, losing your hair has been more annoying than upsetting. Compared to some of the other changes you’ve already felt, this feels oddly normal. Humans deal with this all the time. The world you’ve moved in understands hair loss. You tie a scarf around your head and try to just move on.\n\n\tBut Calde is clearly worried this is upsetting you more than you’re letting on. You watch him stumble over words, trying to tell you you still look nice, to reassure you it’s okay.\n[[I look awful.]]\n[[It's fine.]]

“Novels without a satisfying conclusion because there’s going to be three more novels,” you said.\n\nCalde laughed. “Right? It’s always nice to get more but when more is coming a year from now, it’s frustrating. You need to find a smaller arc that can end.” He takes a big bite before he continues. “Like, even pop historians know this. Look at history, see the arcs, plan books around that. It’s not so hard.” He paused for a moment. “Well, maybe a little difficult.”\n\n“Well, they’re professionals, right? They should be able to,” you said.\n\nHe nodded. “Yes, that’s what I mean.”\n\n<<NowAllowMeToGuess>>

“I’ve been going through some changes,” you say, unsure of your words.\n\n\t“Well, of course, with the baby coming,” Mika says, laughing. “Though you still haven’t told me how all that worked.”\n\n\t“No, it…” you start, and just give up. “It’s hard to explain.”\n\n<<JustMeet>>

The conversation went on like that. You both lingered, after the food was done. And as time moved on, dinners after Calde was done with his classes became a fairly regular occurrence. Calde helped you get a job at the college, doing budgets and administrative work with your new degree. He helped move you into your new apartment you got with your new salary. Being on the same campus together still, you often found time to cross paths. You were very good friends, you told yourself, even if you sometimes wondered if you spent too much time together to be just friends.\n\n\tYou remember a time when you went to a movie together, the most recent Slyph movie at the time, //Portal of Grace//. It was really sappy, but you had a good time. You and Calde had walked to get some coffee after the movie. You felt very relaxed as you talked with him.\n\n\t“It was fun,” you said of the movie.\n\n\tCalde nodded in agreement, taking a drink of his coffee.\n\n\t“I’m glad you didn’t find it a bit much.”\n\n\t“It’s very… emotional,” Calde said, chuckling. “But I see the appeal.”\n\n\t“Slyph is a lot of appeal,” you said.\n\n\t“You think so?” he asked.\n\n\t“She’s very attractive,” you said.\n\n\tCalde took you in for a moment. “Mind if I ask why you think that?”\n\n[[The way her scales shine.]]\n[[The way she smiles.]]

You carefully pack up and go home.\n\n\t“Maybe it’s for the best,” Calde says when you tell him the situation. “You’ve been really stressed lately, and for good reason.”\n\n\tYou nod, pressing against him.\n\n\t“Take time for you, to figure out who you are now, and relax,” he says, holding you close. “And this weekend, we’ll go breathe fire.”\n\n\tYou nod again.\n\n\tBut now that you don’t have work, you spend several days in bed, feeling exhausted and unsure how else to use your time.\n\n\tWhen the fire-breathing day comes around, you can walk on all fours, but along with your longer arms (which you should probably call legs, at this point) none of your clothes really fit. You realize you’re bigger, as you try to put clothes on. You hunt for something where the fabric isn’t likely to rip while you wear it. The outfit you end up putting together looks pretty awful, but at least you’ve covered the important parts.\n\n\tYou can tell Calde is wanting to comment on your clothes as you meet him in the large parking lot he directed you to.\n[[It's the best I could do.]]\n[[Pretty soon I won't be able to wear clothes at all.]]\n

“I feel the difference, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to do it myself,” you say.\n\n\t“Er, right,” Calde says. “Well, I mean… it’s one of those things where… well…” He thinks about it. “I mean, I guess try to feel out what’s different about your breathing now? It should feel different. Humans only have one trachea, right?”\n\n\t“Right…” you say, the question not filling you with much confidence.\n\n<<CaldeGetsBehind>>

You wanted to write about the Dragon Territories Act of 1903. Before Calde’s class, all you had known about it was that it was “bad,” but his discussion of all the dealing that had went into it grabbed your attention.\n\n\t“That’s a good idea,” Calde had said, grinning. “There’s so much more to it… I really skimmed over a lot of the arguments between Richard and Hemms during the whole ordeal…” He ran a claw over one of his shelves before pulling a book down from it. “They were drinking buddies, before all this.”\n\n\t“Seriously?” you had said.\n\n\t“For sure! Hemms was one for alcohol, despite the side effects.”\n\n<<LookedThingsOver>>

Calde comes straight to your apartment, still with luggage, to check on you that night.\n\n\tYou feel bad for giving him such a pitiful look. But you are nearly out of teeth and had a tough time eating anything and are still frustrated. How could you not look so desperate when he unlocked the door?\n\n\tHe drops everything to hug you.\n\n\t“Sorry… I… I should have just cancelled…” he says softly.\n\n\tYou shake your head. He needed to go. It was for his career.\n\n“I’m sorry,” he says again, squeezing you tightly.\n\nYou want to talk to him. Tell him it’s okay. Ask him how his conference went. How his paper went over. But you’re still without words, so you just settle for having him close.\n\nThe next day you have a nearly complete snout, and the beginnings of sharp teeth aching in your mouth. You spend your day at home, learning to talk again. It’s different, working this new mouth. You sound weird. At some point you realize that’s just going to be your voice from now on, and you have to take a moment to process that.\n\nWhen Calde is done with classes, he seems relieved you can talk again.\n\n“You sound nice,” he says as he makes dinner and forces you to sit and rest. You’re tired, even though you stayed home all day. You wonder if you’re sick. But you get tired so easily now anyway. Calde is a bit too big for your kitchen, but he’s determined to make you food anyway.\n[[It's like I'm a different person.]]\n[[I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it.]]\n

Calde held you closer, and just as you were starting to drift off again, he said, “I should breathe fire for you.”\n\n“Hm?” you said, confused.\n\n“You never asked. Every human asks, sometimes immediately, but you never have,” he said softly. “I should show you. Don’t move, I’ll get to a safe distance.”\n\n“You don’t have to…” you said as he got up.\n\n“There’s a lot of trees,” Calde mumbled to himself as he kept moving this way and that.\n\n“Calde…” you said.\n\nFinally, he stopped. “I used to be good at this, but it’s been a while,” he said, and smiled. Then he looked to the sky, and breathed a jet of flame up into the air. You could feel a bit of the heat as the light from the fire slowly dispersed.\n\n[[That was beautiful.]]\n[[That was amazing!]]\n

You decided you didn’t want Calde to do this alone. “I’m not going to break up with Calde, so you’re going to have to get used to me,” you said, purposefully pressing closer against him and his warmth.\n\n\t“I don’t expect you to. I expect Calde to, perhaps, come to his senses,” Alenne said. “Find someone who really wants this gift.”\n\n\t“What are you talking about?” Calde said angrily.\n\n\t“You said it yourself. You’ve been dating for years now, and just now this comes up? And you drive here together in… in a human vehicle?” Alenne said. “This one is too human. You need to find a mate that wants to leave that excuse of an existence behind, Calde. To be a real dragon.”\n\n<<WhenIWasYoung>>\n

“Tell me about becoming a dragon so your son and I can leave,” you said. You voice stayed steady, even though you were worried it would not. But you had Calde with you.\n\n\t“Mm,” Alenne said.\n\n<<DoTheDishes>>

\t“Not really,” you say. “It’s alright, I guess. Has a strange texture.”\n\n\tCalde nods.\n\n\t“Have to really season it.”\n\n\t“Right,” he says.\n\n<<IsItGoing>>

You get outside, and with Calde’s blessing, you work your wings. You hadn’t really gotten a chance to yet. It feels good, like you’re finally able to stretch. And without even thinking about it, you feel yourself lifting off of the ground, filling you with a moment of panic as you stop your wings.\n\n\t“See? Easy,” Calde says, smiling. “You’re already lifting off. But let’s talk about a few things…”\n\n\tYou watch Calde demonstrate some basic things before you try to take off again. Calde flaps above you, motioning with encouragement as you push with your wings and get yourself off the ground. You’re not smooth or fluid like Calde, but there’s no doubt that you’re flying. You’re soon above the apartment building, and higher.\n[[You look down at the world below you, and laugh.]]\n[[You look to Calde, flying nearby, and laugh.]]

“I look awful,” you say. “Let’s just be honest.”\n\n\tCalde looks embarrassed. “But you’re… I mean, you’re still…”\n\n\t“I’m still yours,” you say, “so you still like looking at me.”\n\n\t“Yes,” he says, seeming relieved at that. “That’s… close to what I’m saying, yes.”\n\n\t“Thanks,” you say.\n\n<<HairIsImportant>>\n

But you’re a little sad as the door finally closes. How could you not be? There was a whole human life for you, somewhere, in some other situation. You don’t think it would have been better than this. As emotional as you are, you know, as Calde smiles at you, you’re right where you should be. But it’s hard to shake what ifs. It’s hard to let that human life completely go.\n\n\tYou take a breath. It’s time to move on.\n\n<<ToOurFuture>>

You push.\n\n\tAnd finally it’s done.\n\n\tAlenne cleans the egg off while you try to breathe, while Calde holds you. And then you find yourself curling around it. It feels natural, pressing your egg against your body heat. You can almost sense something inside the shell.\n\n\t“My dragonet…” you mumble softly, exhausted. “Our dragonet…”\n\n\t“All ours,” Calde says.\n\n\tAlenne thankfully gives you some space.\n\n\tYou spend a week just curled around the egg, it feels like. Calde sets up a heat lamp the day after, so you can have space if you want, and offers to take turns. But you don’t want to. You went through a lot for this egg. You want to be here with it.\n\n\tFinally, on his day off, he convinces you to leave the apartment for a while.\n\n\t“Are you sure it’ll be alright?” you ask as Calde nearly drags you away from where the egg rests under the heat lamp.\n\n\t“It won’t hatch for at least another week,” Calde says, smiling. “And I owe you a flying lesson.”\n[[But what if I crash and die before the egg hatches?]]\n[[Do you think I'll pick it up quickly?]]

Calde takes you in. “Would you like to practice your fire, still?”\n\n\tYou nod. “That’s why I’m here… I’m tired of worrying about burning everything down.”\n\n\t“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Calde says, looking a bit embarrassed.\n\n\t“I have been, though,” you say.\n\n\tCalde starts to say something, then stops and just nods. “Well, let me show you, and then it won’t feel so worrying…” He walks over to you and takes one of your claws, putting it against his chest. It’s a fairly embarrassing position. But intimate. You feel Calde’s chest move up and down. “It’s all about breathing through the right pipe, you know?” he says. “This is the one for air, but if I want fire…” He pulls you close, surprising you. You press against him as he puts his head over your shoulder. You feel his chest rumble in an odd way as you feel the heat of a burst of flame being released into the air behind you. “Just like that,” he says, pulling back a bit. “So if you just breathe normally, there’s no risk of fire, I promise.”\n[[But what about the other day?]]\n[[I feel the difference, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to do it myself.]]

“I’m not about to give up now,” you say softly. “I’m so close.”\n\n<<YesCaldeSays>>

“I love you,” you managed to say.\n\n\t“I love you too,” Calde said quietly.\n\n<<AndThatWasThat>>

“Guess you’re stuck with me now,” you managed to say.\n\n\tCalde chuckled softly. “I can think of worse fates.”\n\n<<AndThatWasThat>>

“Something’s clearly bothering you,” you said.\n\n\t“Am I that obvious?”\n\n\tYou nodded.\n\n\tCalde chuckled. “I’m sorry, just… figuring something out…”\n\n\t“Tell me?” you asked.\n\n<<MotherCalled>>\n

Every day you come home to a happy dragonet and an even happier boyfriend. Calde is obviously a bit frazzled by being a dad, but loving it nonetheless.\n\n\t“I never really thought it would be this much work,” he says, chuckling, as he tries to get the little one to eat.\n\n\t“I’m home now,” you remind him. “I can help.”\n\n\t“You did all the hard work getting him into the world,” Calde says. “Least I can do is take care of him while I’m on leave.”\n[[But I want to help.]]\n[[It wasn't that hard.]]

“I just… look in the mirror, or look down, and it’s always a shock,” you say softly, thinking. “There’s big things, but there’s always little things too, that I missed… always little things, too… and I keep telling myself it’s okay, this is what I wanted. And it is. But I never… I never really grasped how I’d get there…”\n\n\tCalde looks to you, worried, and turns down the temperature on the stove to come over.\n\n\tBut you have started talking about it, and you feel the words just continue to spill out. “And I’m just… in a lot of pain… and a lot of… everything… and everything feels wrong… and a lot of the times I don’t know what to do…” You’re having trouble breathing, almost gasping between words, but you still can’t stop. “Even my boss wants me to stay at home now, take a medical leave or extended parental leave or… I don’t know...” You fall into a coughing fit. You feel like you should be crying now, but you aren’t. Another thing you’ve lost, perhaps. “I’m losing my grip on everything…”\n\n\tCalde takes your claws and moves them so you’re hugging him. “Can… can you hold on to me?” he asks.\n\n\tYou nod a little. You try to focus on his warmth, like you usually do when you’re upset and he’s close. But he doesn’t feel as warm today. You hide against him and stifle a cough.\n\n\t“We can make it,” he says softly. “Not too much longer.”\n\n\tYou nod, though it feels like you still have a long way to go.\n\n\tHe stays there close for a while, before worrying about the meat he was stir-frying. “I love you… let me finish dinner and we’ll eat together,” he says, and goes back to the kitchen.\n\n\tYou sit there and try to collect yourself. But you keep coughing. It’s making your throat hurt. You really must be sick.\n\n\tCalde comes back carefully carrying two plates of food. He sets them down on the table. You move to join him, but fall into another coughing fit. You cough especially hard.\n\n\tAnd then the table is on fire.\n\n\t“Get back, get back!” Calde is yelling as he hurries back to the kitchen. He comes back with a fire extinguisher and sprays foam everywhere.\n\n\tYou realize you’re laying on the floor, having fallen backwards, shaking.\n\n\tCalde lets out a big sigh as he confirms the fire is out, and sits down.\n\n\tYou’re still shaking. You look to him. He looks back.\n\n\t“We’ll… we’ll have to practice with that,” he says softly.\n\n\tYou nod. Your mouth tastes like lighter fluid. It stings. There’s a bunch of smoke in the room.\n\n\t“Going to… lay down…” you croak, standing and stumbling to your bedroom.\n\n\tYou’re not quite sure how long you lay there before you hear Calde work his way into the room. You look up at him.\n\n\t“I’m sorry…” he says, quietly. “I’m sorry I… did all this to you…”\n\n\tYou shake your head.\n\n\tHe comes over and joins you on the bed. He holds you possessively. “I hate seeing you in so much pain…”\n[[I'll be okay.]]\n[[It will pass.]]\n

“It’s fine,” you tell him. “It’s just another thing.”\n\n\t“Well… yes…” he says, “But it’s a big thing…”\n\n\tYou chuckle at that. “Maybe a little.”\n\n\t“It’s… maybe…” he says.\n\n<<HairIsImportant>>

“I don’t need a new name,” you say, after thinking about it for a little. “I mean, I’m still me.”\n\n\t“You are,” Calde says, smiling.\n\n\t“We have a more important name to think about anyway,” you say.\n\n\t“Oh?”\n\n\t“What are we going to name our first dragonet?” You put a claw on your large belly. “Not too much longer now.”\n\n\tCalde looks caught off-guard, but smiles. “An important question.”\n\n<<BooksOfDragonNames>>

You both share a long hug before you head into the office.\n\n\tYou share another before he leaves for his conference.\n\n\tAnd then you’re alone for several days. And it is lonely.\n\n\tYou hadn’t really spent any time with your friends since your pregnancy stopped looking like a human one. You weren’t really sure how to explain it. But another night alone feels like the push you needed.\n\n\tYou call Mika.\n\n\t“Well look who it is!” she says on the phone. “You have been just, woosh, gone.”\n\n\t“Sorry,” you say. “Some things have been happening…”\n\n\t“Oh yeah? Do tell,” she says.\n[[I've been going through some changes.]]\n[[I doubt you'd believe me.]]\n

“I’m sure he will,” you say. “Kids are kids no matter what kind they are, right?”\n\n\t“Right,” Calde says, chuckling. “Right…”\n\n<<LifeSlowlyFalls>>

You decided you didn’t want Calde to do this alone. “Calde is doing very important work,” you said. “There are a lot of garbage humans out there that make up the worst things. I’ve seen what hearing some of Calde’s stories does to people who don’t understand.”\n\n\t“And I assume you heard these stories too, and were suddenly enlightened?” Alenne said, clearly sarcastic.\n\n\t“At the very least, I’m a better person now, with him,” you said.\n\n\t“Barely a person at all,” Alenne said.\n\n<<WhenIWasYoung>>\n

“Yes…” Calde says, stroking your head softly.\n\n\tYou wake up one morning to find the pain finally subsiding. You’re sore, but you can handle sore. You feel so relieved. Your skin, however, is no less itchy. No longer terrified of moving, you can’t help but scratch a little, at your forehead.\n\n\tYour claws come away holding a chunk of skin.\n\n\tTerrified, you touch where the skin was.\n\n\tScales.\n\n\tYou laugh, and the sound wakes Calde up.\n\n\t“Mmm?” he says, half asleep.\n\n\tYou ignore him, and head to the bathroom.\n\n\tThey really are scales.\n\n\tYou start pulling skin off, shedding on the floor. It would be kind of gross, if you spent time to think about it, but at the moment, there are more important things to think about. You tear all the skin off of your face, and stare at yourself in the mirror.\n\n\tA dragon looks back at you.\n[[Hi there.]]\n[[It's not a bad face.]]\n

“Magic is a natural resource,” Calde said. “It’s finite. We didn’t always know that…”\n\n\t“But now you do,” you said.\n\n\t“And we need to it survive as a species,” he said. “We have to make dragons with all the right bits with magic. There are so many of you all, if we told you about magic, and even some of you started using it, we’d burn through the rest of the planet’s magic in no time. We wouldn’t be able to breed. So we just… decided to keep it a secret…”\n[[That makes sense.]]\n[[Still seems shady to hide that knowledge.]]

You slowly fly around the town with Calde, mostly just to campus and back, your future commute. You occasionally lose a bit of control now and again, from wind or distraction, but Calde is always there to refocus you and tell you how to handle it. When you finally get back to the apartment, you don’t really trust yourself completely to fly without his advice, but you won’t hesitate to go with him again. I mean, you can fly. You can really fly.\n\nCalde cooks dinner while you tell the egg all about your first flight.\n\n“Someday, we’ll take you on your first flight,” you say.\n\n“That’ll be a great day,” Calde says from the kitchen.\n\n“I’ll be much better at it by then, I’d hope,” you say.\n\n“Without a doubt.”\n\nYour parents come over to meet the new you and the new egg. They are clearly a bit disturbed by all of it. You really can’t blame them. You don’t really look anything like their child anymore. You’re way bigger than your dad, who has always been taller than you. It’s a weird feeling. But your parents excited to have a grandchild, of a sort, and they smile at you as you talk about everything you and Calde are getting set up.\n\n“Can’t read that new scaly face of yours very well,” your mom says as she’s getting ready to leave, “but it’s clear you’re happy.”\n[[I am.]]\n[[Thank you for understanding all this.]]

“She’ll come around,” you said, putting a hand up on his cheek.\n\n\t“She’ll come around when you have scales for that simple reason,” Calde said. “That’s the wrong reason. You deserve better.”\n\n\tYou nodded.\n\n<<DinnerWasFine>>\n

“If I say yes now, can I back out?” you asked, finally.\n\n\t“If you need to,” Calde said. “Of course. There is a point of no return, but otherwise, of course… I want you to be happy. I’m not… I’m not forcing you.”\n\n\t“I’ve never been anything but a human… this doesn’t seem like a decision I should make on a whim,” I said.\n\n\t“Probably not,” Calde said.\n\n\tThere was some silence.\n\n\t“But I mean, saying yes sounds like what I’d do,” you said, softly. “If I was making it on a whim, I mean.”\n\n\tCalde swept you up into a huge hug, the kind that always made you blush brightly and sink into his warmth. You stayed there for a long time. You had been thinking about marriage, off and on. When you had tried to talk to Calde about it, he didn’t think it worth consideration.\n \n“It’s just such a strange idea,” he said. “If you want to be with someone, just be with someone, right? You don’t need paperwork and an overly expensive ceremony for that. And even if that’s still something someone wants, you still have an awkward human history of buying and selling women with dowries and strange hostage alliance marriages and discriminatory restrictions on who can and who can’t and all kinds of other baggage with marriage. I don’t get why you all still do it.”\n\n“It’s a traditional thing,” you had said, being unsure how else to respond to that. “Traditions are important.”\n\n“They are,” Calde admitted. “But it’s a tradition that, what, a clawful of years ago we wouldn’t have been able to legally engage in. This feels like one of those times where it’s time to make a new tradition.” He took your hand carefully in his claw. “I don’t think that would really represent what we have properly, anyway. We can do something else to show we’ll always be together, can’t we?”\n\n[[You think we'll always be together?]]\n[[I'm sure we can. But I have no idea what.]]\n

You understand why that’s on his mind. You’ve been trying to hold back. You don’t want him to know how much trouble you’ve been having. You don’t want him to think you’re unhappy.\n\n<<EverythingIWantToSay>>

“There’s paperwork for that sort of thing?” you asked.\n\n\t“Apparently so,” he said, smiling. “There’s a form for every possible thing one might want to do, I would assume.”\n\n\t“Who knew we’d been breaking the rules for so long,” you said.\n\n\t“We’re rebels, clearly,” Calde said.\n\n<<OfficiallyDating>>

As you looked things over with him, you quickly realized how close he was. He radiated a heat very much unlike humans, like the heat of a campfire. He towered over you, but somehow managed not to make that seem threatening.\n\n\tYou really had to admit you liked him.\n\n\tIt got a bit embarrassing after that. You minored in dragon history, just to keep seeing him, at first, though you really did love the subject. You stopped by regularly, between classes. At first, you still talked about assignments, but more and more you asked each other about your lives, about school politics, about everyday things. It became a break you looked forward to, on those days. And after you graduated, Calde offered to take you out to dinner when you stopped by to thank him one more time.\n\n“I’d love to, but are you sure?” you said, feeling a bit hesitant, having been his student for so long.\n\n“Well, it’s not like you have a good reason to stop by during my office hours anymore, right?” he said, smiling softly. “And we never did settle that extremely important debate on Dr. Rill’s cat.”\n\nYou chuckled. “I still say you’re biased because the cat can’t cut through your scales.”\n\n“Well, I suppose we’ll never know for sure, until we’re getting some dinner,” he said, grinning.\n\nCalde took you to a barbeque place close to campus. Everyone working there obviously knew him as he chatted with them a bit while ordering.\n\n[[You must really like this place if you know the owners.]]\n[[I'd be so nervous, to be recognized like that.]]\n

Calde nodded and knocked.\n\n\tThe dragon who answered the door seemed old. You weren’t an expert on such things, of course. Calde was the only dragon you’d ever seen outside of pictures and movies until that moment. But there was something about the color of her scales and her slightly milky eyes that made it clear she had been alive a long, long time.\n\n\t“Calde,” she said, smiling. “My little dragonet.”\n\n\t“Hi, Mother,” he said. “Not really a dragonet at this point, but I’m happy to see you.”\n\n\t“Pfft,” she said. “You were my last egg, you get the curse of being forever a dragonet, you know that.” She turned to look at you. “Mm…”\n\n\t“This is my partner that I told you about, remember?” he said, before turning to you. “This is my Mother, Alenne.”\n\n\tYou introduced yourself to her while she looked you over.\n\n\t“You don’t seem very far along,” she said.\n\n\t“We’re still preparing,” Calde said. “I mean, you would know if I’d gotten any of the supplies, Mother.”\n\n\t“...that is true,” Alenne said, still staring at you. “Just a human, then.”\n\n\t“We’ve known each other years, and been together for quite a lot of it,” Calde said. “You know this. It’s not like I’ve been hiding anything in my e-mails.”\n\n\t“...well, come in, then,” Alenne said. “I have dinner in the oven. It won’t be long.”\n\n\tYou followed her inside into a simple, but nice home. A table just a bit too tall for you when you stood next to it filled a dining room. There were no chairs. You should have thought of this. Calde didn’t have a chair until you started coming over.\n\n\t“No human food, of course,” Alenne said as she disappeared into the kitchen.\n[[I've eaten dragon-style meals many times. I'll be fine.]]\n[[I'm really looking forward to trying dragon food.]]

“Well, they can be nice,” you said, “but it is kind of annoying to try to figure out what to do with them. Like, I’m just supposed to own a flower vase, I guess?”\n\n“And table space,” Calde said. “No way you’d have table space.”\n\nYou chuckled, a bit embarrassed. “Just because my notes were not always in perfect order and I’d lose my textbooks in my dorm room doesn’t mean my future apartment is going to be a mess.”\n\n“Ah, of course. The roommate, surely,” Calde teased.\n\n“Of course. The person not here to present a defense is the perfect person to blame,” you said.\n\nCalde nodded, very seriously. “That’s just sound logic.”\n\nYou nodded back, chuckling.\n\n<<YouBothLingered>>

“It’s okay! Everything is okay, I promise,” you coo as you gently lift him out of the remains of the egg.\n\n<<FetchedATowel>>

“I’m sure we can,” you said, looking into his eyes. “But I have no idea what. Marriage is kind of… what a human does so that’s where my head is.”\n\nCalde nodded. “I understand. Sorry if I’m… being a little harsh.”\n\n“No, you’re right, I think. I don’t think that’s us, exactly. Do you have some dragon tradition I’m not aware of that you’re thinking of?” you asked.\n\n“Maybe,” Calde said, averting his eyes. “But we don’t have to do that either, of course… we just… have to be us.”\n\n“Us is pretty great,” you said.\n\nCalde smiled and nodded.\n\n<<ADifferentSortOfProposal>>

“Signs in all caps with obvious typos in them,” you said.\n\n“It’s always the passive-aggressive ones too,” Calde said, chuckling. “Screaming at you to CLEAN UP AFTER YOUSELF or somesuch. And clearly printed out by the kind of person who you don’t want to tell messed up, because then it would get so much worse.”\n\n“So, so much worse,” you agreed.\n\nCalde takes a bite, thinking about it. “Actually, I wonder if they’re just anger-induced. Like, you see a messy breakroom microwave and you just get so mad you forget how to spell.”\n\n“Is that a thing?” you asked.\n\n“Probably?” Calde said. “Anger is a mysterious force.”\n\n<<NowAllowMeToGuess>>\n

Calde has fetched a towel, and you clean the little guy up, holding him. He seems to calm down as you press him against your warm scales.\n\n\t“Wow…” Calde says softly.\n\n\t“Wow,” you say, smiling.\n\n\tIt turns out a dragonet is much more fully formed when it hatches than a human child. Very quickly he’s running about the apartment causing trouble.\n\n\tThe day before you’re about to return to work, he hits his head on the side of the table and falls backwards. You nearly have a panic attack about it as he makes sounds of pain.\n\n\t“Maybe I need to ask work for a little longer,” you say, worried.\n\n\t“It’s okay,” Calde says, holding your dragonet close while you talk. “He’s fine, and I’m going to be here the whole time.”\n\n\t“But what if…” you start.\n\n\t“It’ll be fine,” Calde says, trying to reassure you.\n\n\tIt’s difficult to leave the next day. It’s even more difficult to deal with everyone at work dealing with your new form. There are a lot of questions.\n[[You divert them by talking about your dragonet.]]\n[[You answer them as best you can.]]

“That was amazing!” you said.\n\nCalde grinned.\n\n<<AlwaysSoCurious>>

You decide to tough it out. Most of what you do is on the computer anyway. Surely you could get a little bit done, at least.\n\n\t“A new development,” your boss says as you get in, just like she’s said every time she’s noticed a change.\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n\t“Still okay, though?” she asks.\n\n\tYou nod again.\n\n\tShe looks at you suspiciously.\n\n\tYou pull a legal pad out of your desk and write “Can’t talk today,” onto it.\n\n\tShe looks at the note, then back to you. “Because of your…” She points vaguely to your future snout.\n\n\tYou nod, and as you do, you feel another tooth shake loose. Embarrassed, you pull it out of your mouth.\n\n\t“I’m doing my best,” your boss says. “Really doing my best to understand. And I know it’s important to you to be here. And I will admit it’s not holding you up that much most days. But I can get along without you, for a bit, if you need to… work through this. You shouldn’t be at work like this.”\n\n\tYou sit at your desk trying to process that for a while, worrying about what it could mean that your boss doesn’t want you to come in anymore.\n\n<<StraightTo>>

“Yeah, right? Why give someone you love something that will slowly die?” you said, smiling.\n\n\t“Here, my love, stare at this beauty that will slowly wither this week until you are forced to decide to throw away this symbol of my love,” Calde said, affecting his voice in a most dramatic way.\n\n\t“Is there a purer symbol of love than a dead bouquet covered in coffee grounds and taquito wrappers?” you asked.\n\n\t“I highly doubt it,” Calde said, chuckling.\n\n<<YouBothLingered>>

“You look great now, though,” Mika says, smiling. “Can I say that? Is that weird to say?”\n\n\t“If it’s weird, I’ll let it slide,” you say, chuckling.\n\n\t“You look so badass, seriously,” she says, chuckling. “Dang. And now that you’re so big, you’re totally going to have to help me move next time, no excuses. You can probably carry like, what, three boxes? Four?”\n\n\t“At least four,” you say.\n\n\t“Dang,” she says. “Gotta hit the gym if I’m gonna compete with four boxes.”\n\n\tYou laugh.\n\n\tIt’s the middle of the night when you hear the crack.\n\n\tYou immediately pop awake and look at the egg. Over the top, a spiderweb of breaks are appearing.\n\n\t“Calde?” you call.\n\n\t“Mmph…?” he says from the bedroom.\n\n\t“Calde!”\n\n\tHe stumbles into the room, half asleep. “Yes? You okay?”\n\n\tThe top of the egg breaks open.\n\n\tYou look into the eyes of your little dragonet. He looks back.\n\n\tHe immediately starts wailing.\n\n\tYou laugh.\n[[The world seems harsh, sure, but I think you'll like it.]]\n[[It's okay! Everything is okay, I promise.]]

Calde’s Mom had a nice house in the middle of nowhere. You had driven down a long, barely maintained gravel road to reach it. The sight of it was a lot to take in. You had hung out at Calde’s apartment many times, of course, and the size of everything had long since stopped feeling awkward. It was just Calde-sized. But Calde’s apartment had been adapted from an old human apartment. It was still familiar in some ways. This house had clearly been built for a dragon from the ground up. You felt like a child as you hesitated by the front door that was just a bit too large, with the knob just a bit too high for you to easily use.\n\n\t“Ready?” Calde asked.\n[[I guess so.]]\n[[Of course.]]

You look to Calde, flying nearby, and laugh. You always wanted to be up here with him. And now here you are, on that same level.\n\n\t“It’s nice to not have to leave you behind down below,” he says.\n\n\t“It’s nice to join you up here,” you say.\n\n<<SlowlyFly>>\n

“You weird me out all the time,” you teased. “But that’s just because you’re a weirdo history nerd.”\n\n“You have a degree in history too,” Calde said, chuckling.\n\n“I have a minor, and you have a Ph.D., totally different,” you said. “You know the names of more military battles than any sane person should.”\n\n“And dates, don’t forget dates,” he said, nuzzling against you softly.\n\n“Oh, I will, but you won’t, I’m sure,” you said.\n\n<<JustAsYouWereStartingToDrift>>\n

You excuse yourself for a moment. Your boss gives you an odd look, but that’s been the case for weeks now. Sitting in a bathroom stall, you cry for a little while. You’d been focusing on work to try to deal with some of the stress that came from these changes. And now the most minor of setbacks made it all pour out of you.\n\n<<WipeYourEyes>>

You spend the next few days looking through books of dragon names, and thinking. When you finally share your decision with Calde, he grins so wide.\n\n\t“It’s perfect,” he says, and hugs you tight.\n\n\tYou’re glad he agrees.\n\n\tOver the next week, you finally give in and decide your human apartment is too small. Your tail, which you found you had not long after your fire lesson, keeps getting longer, and you keep hitting things. It’s annoying to squeeze through doorways. You know wings are coming soon. It’s time. You start packing when you have the energy to.\n\n\tCalde comes over when he can after classes to start flying things to his place. As your apartment starts getting more and more empty, you find it silly that it feels so significant to you. Why wouldn’t you move in with Calde? Why wouldn’t you give up this too-small apartment? But it’s another change, and so it hits you, a little. Why moving into a new apartment you’ve stayed at many times with the man you love feels more important than suddenly having a tail, you can’t say you know. Perhaps it’s just a different kind of change than everything you’ve been subjected to for so long now.\n\n\tWhen you finally hand off the keys to your old place, you and Calde work together to make a big “Welcome Home” meal. He’s smiling so happily as you both sit down to eat. He’s overjoyed to have you here.\n[[And you're happy to be here too.]]\n[[But you're a little sad as the door finally closes.]]

“I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to it,” you say, certainly not used to it now.\n\n\t“I’m sure you will…” Calde says, clearly hoping that’s the right response. “It’s… well, I mean, you know...”\n\n\t“Yeah,” you say, looking at your claws.\n\n<<LookInTheMirror>>

“I’ll be okay,” you say, for yourself as much as him. “I’ll be okay, Calde…”\n\n<<BeSelfish>>

“Anyway, go home, get some rest, take care of yourself through this. I’ll e-mail you all the paperwork. Just have your boyfriend drop them off at some point, okay?” your boss says.\n\n\tYou nod, trying to just accept this. She was probably right, after all.\n\n\t“Not sure why you stuck it out so long, honestly,” she says. “If I had a legit reason I’d be taking every spare moment to sleep.” She chuckles softly.\n[[I didn't know what else to do.]]\n[[I didn't want you to feel like I couldn't keep doing the job.]]\n

“It’s like I’m a different person,” you say, your voice certainly sounding like someone else’s.\n\n\t“Well, you’re not,” Calde says. “You’re still the wonderful one I love.”\n\n\t“I hope I am,” you say, looking at your claws.\n\n<<LookInTheMirror>>

“I’m going to do all the dragon things,” you say.\n\n\t“Yeah, go capture a princess and sleep on piles of gold,” Mika says, grinning.\n\n\t“Sleeping on gold sounds uncomfortable,” you say.\n\n\t“But not the princess part?”\n\n\t“Depends on the princess,” you say.\n\n<<GonnaGetTo>>\n

“Like, witches and potions and curses magic?” you asked.\n\n\t“I mean, in theory,” Calde said. “Hasn’t been like that since… well, since before I hatched.”\n\n\t“So there were for real witches?” you said. “This is big news.”\n\n\t“Well, not… exactly, but I mean, you could get close if you were dedicated,” he said.\n\n<<ANaturalResource>>\n

“That makes sense,” you said. “You need to protect yourselves.”\n\n\tCalde nodded. “Thank you for understanding.”\n\n<<FoodWasCold>>

“I think so,” you said. “She sure told me I was going to be in a lot of pain.”\n\n\t“I… yeah…” Calde said, clearly unhappy about that. “But only the first time. The other two will be… normal.”\n\n\t“For my new normal,” you said.\n\n\t“Yeah,” said Calde.\n\n\tYou closed your eyes.\n\n<<PointOfThatTradition>>

“It makes sense. I can do it,” you said.\n\n\t“Makes sense… well, that is good,” Alenne said, sounding a little surprised. “I was to understand in human circles it is rare to have more than one child these days, if any at all. I am glad you understand why it is required of you.”\n\n\tYou nodded.\n\n<<TheChangeIsNotEasy>>

“I didn’t want you to feel like I couldn’t keep doing the job,” you say, averting your eyes. “I’m not just… this…” You indicate your strange, alien body.\n\n\tYour boss nodded. “Of course not.”\n\n\t“I mean, I am,” you say, even more embarrassed, “I am, but also, I’m still… I mean…”\n\n\t“It’s okay,” she says. “I think I get it.”\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n<<CarefullyPackUp>>\n

Life slowly falls back into a routine. It’s a very different routine, but a routine nonetheless. You didn’t realize you missed routines until you have it back. You work. You pick up the little guy. You or Calde makes dinner. You relax.\n\n\tIt’s nice.\n\n\tOne day, you three decide to go out to dinner. As you land outside the restaurant, you overhear some people whispering a bit too loudly.\n\n\t“That’s that dragon family,” one of them says.\n\n\tYou look to Calde. He looks back to you.\n\n\t“Well, we are,” he says, smiling.\n\n\t“We are,” you agree.\n\n\t[[And thank goodness for that.]]

“I didn’t really know what to do,” you admit.\n\n\t“You tell me! You tell me about it, you say, hey, Mika, let me tell you a thing because you are my friend.”\n\n<<LookLikeAMonster>>

Calde gets behind you, hugging you softly, his claws on your chest. “We’ll just do this, maybe… focus on breathing, and just… play around with it. Feel what else you can do. Take your time, and remember there’s nobody to hurt here.”\n\n\tYou nod, and close your eyes and listen to yourself breathe. It’s relaxing, honestly, even standing in the middle of a sea of asphalt. Calde is close. And you can let yourself feel like things will be okay with him here.\n\n\tEventually, though, you start to mess with your breathing. It never even occurred to you that that was a thing you could do, besides speed it up or slow it down. Big or small. But you realize there’s something else, something you tell yourself is a sideways motion, even though that doesn’t make much sense. And as you move that way, a little, you feel your breath get hot.\n\n\t“There, I think you found it,” Calde says softly in your ear. “Take a big breath.”\n\n\tYou breathe in.\n\n\tYou feel a blast of heat erupt from your mouth. You open your eyes to see flames everywhere. You close your mouth in shock.\n\n\tCalde squeezes you tight. “Not so bad, hm?”\n\n\t“Not so bad,” you say. “It still feels kind of weird, though.”\n\n\t“Now you just need to figure out how to focus it,” he says.\n\n\tCalde demonstrates many different ways to breathe fire. Small streams, wide bursts, and everything in between. It always looks like it comes naturally to him. You struggle with it. While you quickly feel confident you won’t breathe fire unless you want to, your fire is uncontrolled and everywhere. By the time the sun starts to set, you’ve managed to figure out how to focus it down a little, but it takes overwhelming concentration.\n\n\t“We should maybe call it a day and get some food,” Calde says, noticing your exhaustion. “But you really did great.”\n[[How long did it take you to figure all this out?]]\n[[My mouth tastes like burning.]]\n

“Like, fix life’s problems with ease magic?” you asked. “Spells to cure diseases and fix broken cars?”\n\n\t“We could use it like that, in theory,” Calde said. “I mean, I’m sure there’s ancient texts with some of that stuff.”\n\n\t“But you don’t now.”\n\n\t“No.”\n\n<<ANaturalResource>>\n

“I’ve eaten dragon-style meals many times. I’ll be fine,” you said towards the kitchen.\n\n\t“Mm,” was Alenne’s only response.\n\n<<AlreadyFrustrated>>\n

Alexis "poetfox" Long

“Do you think I’ll pick it up quickly?” you ask. You still hadn’t really mastered your fire, but flying seems much more important, if you are ever going to get back to work. You had put your car up for sale. You don’t really fit in it anymore.\n\n\t“At the very least, enough that you can fly with me,” he says. “And I’ll be glad to fly with you to work until you feel confident alone.”\n\n\t“If everyone keeps seeing us flying around together, they’ll start thinking we’re in love or something,” you say.\n\n\tCalde grins. “They just might.\n\n<<YouGetOutside>>

“I guess so...” you say, unsure.\n\n\t“We made this decision together, this… our future life, and future dragonets and…” Calde says, looking like he’s struggling for words. “I don’t want to just leave you to deal with this. I want to be here with you in this… I’m… trying to be with you in this…”\n\n\tYou nod, emotions making it hard to respond.\n\n<<CurlingUpOnCouch>>\n

“Do you mind it?” you asked. “Hopefully I’m not similarly a bother.”\n\nCalde chuckled. “You’ve not been a bother yet, so I don’t think you’ll start. Or are you needing to do some bothering?”\n\n“You never know, I might get into the bothering business,” you said.\n\n“It’s lucrative, I hear,” he said.\n\n“So could you make me a list of proper bothering tactics, Professor?” you asked, smiling.\n\n“Sure,” he said. “Sure, you definitely need to know how to annoy me. I can finally pass along those ancient secrets.”\n\n“Let me guess,” you said, taking a bite of your pulled pork sandwich and trying to read him.\n\n[[Novels without a satisfying conclusion because there's going to be three more novels.]]\n[[Signs in all caps with obvious typos in them.]]\n

“Hi there,” you say to your reflection. “Been waiting for you.”\n\n\tThe face in the mirror smiles.\n\n<<CaldeComesIn>>

You don’t know what to say to that. You are full of many competing emotions, and there are no good words for any of them. There’s a lot of silence.\n\n<<EverythingIWantToSay>>

Changing Together\n\na story about a relationship\n\nby poetfox\n\n[[Begin]]\n\nThere is only one ending, and no bad choices. Please enjoy yourself.\n\nContent Warnings\nThis story contains some light body horror elements. There is also a short sex scene.

You wipe your eyes and look at your hands. Soon they wouldn’t be hands anymore. They already were barely recognizable. It’s the in-between, you try to tell yourself. It’ll be fine once it’s over.\n\n\tYou say the same thing when Calde comes over to check on you that night.\n\n\t“That makes sense,” he says. He takes your future claws in his, and you notice a moment of worry cross him, like that was the wrong move.\n\n\t“It’s okay,” you promise him.\n\n\t“Sorry,” he says, and squeezes softly. “I… I wish you would have called me.”\n\n\t“You were in class, and doing things,” you say, embarrassed. “I can’t just call you any time I feel bad. Especially over something so silly.”\n\n\t“This is different, though, right?” he says. “This is… this is an us thing… right?”\n[[I guess so...]]\n[[I can handle it.]]

“Everyone is staring at me,” you say. “I’m not used to it.”\n\n\t“That’s hard to handle sometimes, yeah,” Calde says.\n\n\tYou feel extra silly when you’re reminded that people stare at Calde all the time.\n\n\t“Soon they’ll be staring for the right reasons,” Calde says, smiling a soft, hopeful smile. “That we’re the two most beautiful dragons they’ve ever seen, and we’re so very in love.”\n\n\tYou nod, managing a soft smile back.\n\n<<ClawsBreakOut>>

“But I want to help,” you say, chuckling.\n\n\tCalde smiles, and passes the little dragonet to you. “Alright then, sure…”\n\n<<Don'tHaveAnEasier>>

“That’s such a strange thing to imagine,” you said.\n\n\t“You think it’d be weird flying with me?” he asked.\n\n\t“No, not that, that sounds nice. More just… me doing the flying.”\n\n\t“It’s not difficult or anything,” Calde said. “Promise.”\n\n\t“You say that, but you’ve had wings your whole life.”\n\n\t“I’ll teach you,” he said. “You already know I’m a good teacher.”\n\n\t“Can’t deny that,” you said, smiling.\n\n\t“Shall we continue?” he asked, clearly feeling a bit better.\n\n<<Calde'sMom>>\n

“I promise to tell you if it starts bothering me more,” you say.\n\n\t“...thanks,” Calde says, smiling softly.\n\n<<ShareALongHug>>

“Now, allow me to guess something that annoys you,” Calde said, thinking.\n\n“What? No, I’m learning your secrets, now that we’re both just civilians,” you said.\n\n“No, no, you did one, I do one, that’s how it works,” Calde said, smiling. “Now let’s see…”\n\nYou sit there as he looks you over, like the answer is written on your forehead or something.\n\nFinally, with confidence, he said, “Bouquets of flowers.”\nYou take a moment, and then laugh.\n\n[[Yeah, right? Why give someone you love something that will slowly die?]]\n[[Well, they can be nice, but it is kind of annoying to try to figure out what to do with them.]]

You smile back.\n\n\t“To our future?” Calde offers as he raises his glass.\n\n\t“To our future,” you say, raising yours.\n\n\tIt turns out growing wings hurts a lot. It feels like they’re sawing through your back, and you spend several days in Calde’s, and now your, oversized bed, trying to let the pain pass. Occasionally, you try to move your wings. But that just hurts more. On top of that, your whole body has started to itch. But trying to do something about it often just makes you move your wings, and cause more pain.\n\n\t“Soon we’ll be able to fly together,” Calde says softly, holding your claw in his as you whimper in pain. This is the third time you accidentally woke him up this evening, but he acts like it’s nothing. “They’re almost big enough…”\n\n\t“It hurts,” you say, as if that wasn’t obvious.\n\n\t“I know…” Calde says. “But you’re almost there.”\n[[I've been through worse.]]\n[[I'm not about to give up now.]]\n

“My mother called me,” he said.\n\n\tYou had always gotten the feeling that Calde and his mother did not get along, or at least were not very close. He rarely mentioned her “Really?” you asked.\n\n\tHe nodded. “We caught up, it was nice.”\n\n\t“That’s good,” you said.\n\n\t“But we talked about… us… and my duties to dragonkind…” Calde said, speaking slowly, like he was worried about every word.\n\n\t“Duties…” you said.\n\n\t“There aren’t a lot of us… I need to… you know…”\n\n\t“Have kids?”\n\n\tCalde nodded.\n\n\tYou had thought about this a bit as well. You liked the idea of a family, but you’d pushed that away once you and Calde got serious. It wasn’t going to happen. But you also had a feeling that Calde would need to pass on his genes at some point. There was a history of dragon breeding programs, after all.\n\n\t“We don’t have to be over just because you have to have an egg with someone, do we?” you asked. “I understand that this is important. But we can still be together, even with that.”\n\n\tYou could see Calde immediately change expression to one of relief. “I… yes. We can… I’m glad you don’t see it as a problem…”\n\n\t“We haven’t really talked about it,” you said. “It felt like something we both were scared of… but I’ve thought about it a lot. It’s… you know. It’s okay. We can’t have a normal family anyway.”\n\n\t“Normal family?”\n\n\t“Poor choice of words,” you said, embarrassed. “I don’t know.”\n\n\t“Mother is trying to gather a list of potential mates,” Calde said. “But there’s not a lot out there who aren’t attached, and I don’t really want to pay my way into another relationship…” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Can I tell you a secret I’m not supposed to tell anyone?”\n\n\t“Of course.”\n\n\t“...I should have told you years ago,” he said. “I just… don’t even know how anyone is supposed to say this kind of thing…” He took a breath. “So, there are no naturally born dragon females. No, that’s not… that terminology is wrong, there are naturally born dragon females, but they don’t have the right… what I mean is, all dragons are assigned male at birth.”\n[[...what?]]\n[[...it seems like you should have told me this already.]]

“That’s the appeal,” you said. “Isn’t it?”\n\n\t“You tell me,” she said.\n\n\t“Well, I mean… everyone else is… very… I don’t know,” you said, feeling embarrassed.\n\n\tMika just laughed.\n\n<<DragonsLiveLike>>

After a week, attendance dropped sharply. Many students had gotten what they wanted. But you stayed, and studied, one of maybe fifteen left. You asked questions, and Calde was happy to answer. He seemed glad someone was speaking up. Most students stayed silent. It wasn’t even in your major, since you were going to school for accounting, but it quickly became your favorite class.\n\n\tYou remember the first time you realized there was something more than admiration. You went to his office, to talk about a paper.\n[[You wanted to write about the first Human/Dragon War.]]\n[[You wanted to write about the Dragon Territories Act of 1903.]]

It’s not a bad face. It’s a pretty nice face, really. You take in every bit of it.\n\n\tYou could live the rest of your life with this face, you decide.\n\n<<CaldeComesIn>>

“I’d be so nervous, to be recognized like that,” you confided as Calde sat down with a huge plate of ribs in front of him. “I always try to keep my head down and escape quickly and politely.”\n\n“Sounds like a sound strategy,” he said, chuckling. “It does take up a lot of time, chit-chatting. But it’s unlikely anyone is going to forget me, seeing as I’m the only dragon in the area, as far as I’m aware, so.” He took a bite of a rib and shrugged.\n\n<<DoYouMindIt>>

“She’s nothing we can’t handle,” you said, putting a hand up on his cheek. “We need something from her, right? We can grin and bear it until then.”\n\n\tCalde nodded, still looking unsure.\n\n\t“Together,” you said again.\n\n<<DinnerWasFine>>\n

“I think the whole point of that tradition,” Calde said, “is to make sure you’re willing to go through all that. Since we can’t really reverse it. One final discussion from someone who has been there to be sure.”\n\n\t“Do you want to know if I’m sure?” I asked.\n\n\t“If you’re ready to tell me,” he said.\n\n\tYou opened your eyes to look at him. He looked back down at you, clearly worried, or eager. Full of emotion. You knew what he wanted to hear, but you could also tell he would take whatever you said. You had this moment with others you’ve dated, moments where your partner so needed you to say something and you knew, if you refused, the relationship was over. Perhaps not immediately, but eventually.\n\n\tBut you knew, truly knew in that moment, basking in his warm and closeness, that he would not leave if you said no. You’d live your life together still, if you stayed human. That’s what he had said, from the very beginning of discussing it. But in that moment the last bit of doubt faded away.\n[[And so you said]]

“I worry I’ll never be a good dragon,” you manage to say. “I’ll never be the right thing… just a human in a weird body… everyone… everyone will know somehow… and it’ll never work...”\n\n\t“We’re both just people,” Calde says. “There’s no one thing that makes a dragon. You don’t need to impress anyone or be anything in particular…”\n\n\t“I feel like I do,” you say quietly.\n\n\tCalde nods. “I… yeah… I’m sorry if I…”\n\n\t“No…” you say, shushing him.\n\n<<TooHungryToStay>>\n

“Maybe a clean break is what I need,” you consider out loud. “Maybe I’ll feel less… stuck between things…”\n\n\t“That makes sense, though I don’t know if that’s enough of a reason alone,” Calde says. “You’ll get a hold on who you are with or without a name change.”\n\n\t“Still, it’s not a bad idea,” you say. “I’ll think about it.”\n\n<<BooksOfDragonNames>>

“Of course. I’m excited about it,” you said.\n\n\tAlenne looked to you like she was unsure she should believe you.\n\n\t“When I fell in love with Calde, I did not think we could have kids. Maybe adopt a child, if we were lucky and made way more money. But I wanted a family, and now we can have one.”\n\n\t“Mm,” Alenne said, thinking about this.\n\n<<TheChangeIsNotEasy>>

“I can handle it,” you say, trying to sound more confident than you are.\n\n\t“...I know you can,” Calde says, looking way. “I just don’t think you should have to…”\n\n\t“It’s my body, though…” you say.\n\n\t“Yeah…” Calde says, “But it’s… well, it’s our future… right? I mean, it is your body, and don’t let me push my way in if you don’t want me there… but… I want to help more… I want to help you...”\n\n\tYou nod, emotions making it hard to respond.\n\n<<CurlingUpOnCouch>>\n

“My mouth tastes like burning,” you say.\n\n\t“Oh, yeah, the taste is something to get used to,” Calde says, smiling.\n\n\t“Maybe I won’t have to,” you say. “I can’t see myself setting too many people on fire.”\n\n\t“Well, yes, but it’s good to know, just in case.”\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n\t“And hey, some food will wash that taste right out, yes?” Calde says hopefully.\n\n\t“Right,” you say, smiling a little.\n\n<<HeadToBBQ>>\n

You stared with all the rest of the class, overwhelmed by seeing him there. His tie and vest looked awkward against his scales, but he made it work, wearing it like a badge of pride. You could tell his smile, full of teeth, scared some students, but it felt genuine. The way he paced on all fours as he talked, but shifted to his back legs to write on the board… even the simplest actions he did seemed alien. It took you the whole class to get over it and realize you should have been paying attention. It was still a class, after all.\n\n<<AttendanceDropped>>

“It’s kind of annoying,” you say, figuring what “it” is is extremely obvious. “Nothing is made to be looked at from this angle.”\n\n\t“Little more and we can start getting you dragon things… adaptors…” Calde says, sounding unsure if that was the right thing to say.\n\n\t“I guess we’ll have to, yeah,” you say.\n\n\t“Is… that okay?”\n\n\tYou nod and then just give up and hug him, right there in the middle of campus, for a while.\n\n<<ClawsBreakOut>>\n

You decide to call in to work. But it takes the phone ringing before you realize how pointless that is. And before you can hang up, your boss picks up.\n\n\t“Everything alright?” she asks.\n\n\tYou take a breath, and try to make sounds that sound like “I’m sick.”\n\n\tIt doesn’t really work.\n\n\t“Are… you okay? Is this… should I get help? I know you keep telling me everything is okay with you, but…” your boss says, worrying.\n\n\tUnsure what else to do, you hang up and furiously start texting her about the situation.\n\n\t“Maybe you should consider taking a longer medical leave for all of this,” she texts back. “Stay home and rest and get past whatever is happening to you.”\n\n\tYou end up spending the day in bed, losing more teeth and worrying about your boss not wanting you to come in.\n\n<<StraightTo>>\n

“Is this… is this how it always goes?” you asked. “Where a dragon falls in love with a human and… this?”\n\n\t“Sometimes,” he said. “It wasn’t always humans but that’s… mostly not the case anymore. It’s not always love. But… we’re in love, so…” He looked at me, eyes clearly hoping that was still true.\n\n\t“We’re in love,” you said.\n\n\t“So that’s how it’s going, this time,” he said. “I hope.”\n\n<<CanIBackOut>>\n

“You must really like this place if you know the owners,” you said as you both finally sat down with your food.\n\n“I do,” Calde said, a huge plate of ribs in front of him. “Barbeque is one of the best human inventions, at least in the world of cooking. And they do a great job here.” He bit a chunk off of a rib and swallowed. “But I don’t really know them too well… To be fair, I’m kind of easy to remember, so I sort of end up talking a lot with staff wherever I go.”\n\n<<DoYouMindIt>>

“I mean, I know hair is important to humans so, I mean…” he says. “I understand. Or I’m trying. So.”\n\n\tIt finally clicks why he’s been so on edge. He was worried he’d downplay it because he doesn’t get it. You almost laugh. “Thank you, Calde.”\n[[But I'm not really human anymore.]]\n[[I promise to tell you if it starts bothering me more.]]

“I guess so,” you said.\n\n<<NoddedAndKnocked>>

“I doubt you’d believe me,” you say, still worrying about just saying it.\n\n\tMika laughs. “Hey, hey, who is the person who did not even blink when you admitted you wanted get all smoochy with a dragon?”\n\n\t“...you,” you say.\n\n\t“Exactly,” she says. “Try me.”\n\n<<JustMeet>>

“But what if I crash and die before the egg hatches?” you ask. “What then, Calde?”\n\n\t“Then I’ll tell him all kinds of nice things about you, only some of them lies,” Calde says, chuckling. “But you know as well as I do that that’s not going to happen. You’ll be fine.”\n\n\t“Can you even imagine me not getting to see my son’s face after all this?” you say. “Fate would really be hating me.”\n\n\t“Well, I promise, fate loves me,” Calde says. “Because you’re in my life.”\n\n\tYou give him a playful push for being so sappy.\n\n<<YouGetOutside>>\n

“Then we’ll just have to be stopping for me all the time,” you said. “Every time I’ve been in an airplane I’ve gotten airsick.”\n\n\tCalde chuckled a little. “Is that so?”\n\n\tYou nodded. “Had to start getting those patches to wear.”\n\n\t“Well, I think it’d be different if you were flying by your own wings,” he said. “Not that I have any experience with airplanes, of course.”\n\n\t“I hope so,” you said. “I don’t think those little patches work through scales.”\n\n\tCalde chuckled again, obviously feeling a little better. “Shall we continue?”\n\n<<Calde'sMom>>

You answer them as best you can. Some make you feel uncomfortable, like they’re challenging who you are. But you know you’d be curious too, were the situation reversed.\n\nEventually, things die down and you can just get back to work.\n\n<<EveryDayYouComeHome>>

Of course you’d both been intimate before. You don’t date someone for so long without that sort of contact. But immediately this was different, somehow, as you calmed down, back in control, and he looked at you, filled with love and need.\n\n<<ShareThisWithYou>>

“I have moments where it’s hard to believe we’re together, too,” you said. “It’s not something that my past self would really believe, you know?”\n\n“What, that you’re dating a dragon?” Calde asked.\n\n“No, no, though that would blow young me’s mind too,” you said. “But more just… that I could… that I know I can count on you, no matter what poorly-thought-out thing I do.”\n\nHe smiled.\n\n<<JustAsYouWereStartingToDrift>>

You divert them by talking about your dragonet, showing them pictures on your phone. It seems to click with everyone, eventually, that they shouldn’t make this a big deal, and soon you’re just dealing with the usual new baby sorts of questions.\n\n\tYou can handle that.\n\n<<EveryDayYouComeHome>>\n

And you’re happy to be here, too. This is what you wanted, when you agreed to this. To everything. To live with him, and be with him. To share things with him nobody else could share. To raise dragonets with him.\n\n\tAnd it felt like it was starting at that moment.\n\n<<ToOurFuture>>\n

\t“Yeah, I do,” you say. “At least sometimes.”\n\n\t“Oh,” Calde says, sounding worried.\n\n\t“It’s fine,” you say. “I’ll be okay.”\n\n\tCalde isn’t sure what to say.\n\n\t“I promise I’m not lying,” you say.\n\n\t“Alright,” Calde says.\n\n<<IsItGoing>>

“Maybe a little,” you say. “I know I was really overwhelmed there for a while.”\n\n\tMika looks up to you and frowns. “Man, you should have come to me more often and talked about this stuff. You know I’m there for you.”\n\n\tYou look away, a little embarrassed. “I probably should have, yeah.”\n\n<<YouLookGreatNow>>\n

You stood your ground, staring back. You knew she expected you to flinch. To want to run. And you did, a little. But you had Calde with you.\n\n\t“Mm,” Alenne said.\n\n<<DoTheDishes>>

“Calde,” Alenne said. “Do the dishes. We have some things to discuss in private.”\n\n\tCalde gave you a worried look. You nodded to him. You’d be okay.\n\n\t“I’ll be right in the kitchen if you need me,” he said, and started picking up plates from the table.\n\n\tAlenne looked to you. “You understand the quota?” she asked.\n\n\t“Three eggs, right?” you said.\n\n\t“And you accept this?”\n[[It's more than I wanted, but I can handle it.]]\n[[It makes sense. I can do it.]]\n[[Of course. I'm excited about it.]]

And so you said, “I’m sure. I want to do this.”\n\n\tYou picked a night. You both did your best to make it romantic.\n[[You took a long walk under the stars together.]]\n[[You had dinner at your favorite restaurant.]]

“If he doesn’t, we’ll keep looking,” you say. “Worse case, surely we can find some individual to watch him.”\n\n\t“Maybe,” Calde says. “But yes, we’re not about to give up.”\n\n\t“Right,” you agree.\n\n<<LifeSlowlyFalls>>

“...what?” you asked, confused.\n\n\t“I… yeah…” Calde said, embarrassed.\n\n\t“But you have a mom. You just a moment ago said you have a mom.”\n\n\t“I do! I mean, there are dragons with those bits, but just not… naturally… I mean, sort of naturally but not what you humans would call naturally…”\n\n\t“...how did I not know this?” you asked. “This is a big thing?”\n\n\t“I know, I know…”\n\n\t“I mean, I love you, but this is… what?”\n\n\t“I know…”\n\n<<We'reMagical>>\n

“Thank you for being so accepting,” you say. “I know it’s a lot to take in… it’s too much for me to take in on some days…”\n\n\t“It’s… yeah, it’s a lot,” your boss admits. “But hey, it’s just, you know, you, right? This doesn’t affect the work you do or anything like that. Just you. New you. Right?”\n\n\tYou nod, embarrassed. “Though I might… need a few new things when I get back… to work properly…”\n\n\t“We’ll figure out the budget,” she says. “Don’t worry about it for now.”\n\n\t“Thanks…”\n\n<<GoHomeGetSomeRest>>\n

“The way she smiles,” you said. “So many actors are clearly acting, sometimes. Slyph may not be the best actor, but you can always tell she’s thrilled to be there. It’s great.”\n\n\tCalde chuckled and nodded. “She is… energetic, at least.”\n\n<<SheLooksAttractive>>

After they head out, you curl back up around your egg, and Calde joins you.\n\n\t“That went alright, I think,” he says.\n\n\tYou nod. “I’m sure there will be questions later. They seemed overwhelmed.”\n\n\t“Probably. But we can handle it.”\n\n\t“We can,” you say.\n\n\tSoon, you can tell the egg is about to hatch. Your little dragonet is moving inside. You’ve been talking to work about when you can start coming back in. You’ve already used your parental leave and some extra, so Calde is going to use his after the egg hatches. You’d prefer to still be here, but you have to get back to work sometime.\n\n\t“Holy heck,” Mika says, stopping by to visit and putting her ear to your egg. “There’s a little lizard dude in there.”\n\n\t“Mmhmm,” you say, smiling.\n\n\t“And this came out of your body!” she says.\n\n\t“Somehow,” you say.\n\n\t“Dang, I’m never having kids, I’ll tell you that,” Mika says, grinning. “Seems like way too much work.”\n[[Maybe a little.]]\n[[Totally worth it, though.]]

“I didn’t know what else to do,” you admit. “Besides just… continuing. I don’t have a lot of guidance in this… or not as much as I want, anyway.”\n\n\t“I can understand that,” your boss says. “Something familiar when everything is unfamiliar.”\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n<<CarefullyPackUp>>\n

You had dinner at your favorite restaurant. It wasn’t much. The barbeque place not far from campus. But it was a place where you and Calde had had so many discussions over lunch, and had really gotten to know each other. It was special.\n\n\t“I remember when you’d finished your 470 final, and came to say a dramatic goodbye,” he said between bites, “and I somehow managed to ask you out to dinner here, so we could keep talking.”\n\n\t“I'm really glad you did,” you said, smiling.\n\n\tCalde leaned over, and licked your cheek, making you blush.\n\n\t“Had some sauce there,” he said, grinning.\n\n<<NoMoreTime>>\n

“Still seems shady to hide that knowledge. Especially as an academic,” you said.\n\n\t“I… yeah,” Calde said. “But it’s not really my call. Not my choice to make. So I stayed quiet.”\n\n<<FoodWasCold>>\n

“I’m thinking my teeth are going to get real sharp next,” you say. “Jaw has been hurting sometimes.”\n\n\t“That’d probably help out with the whole monster thing,” Mika says. “A good look, maybe.”\n\n\t“Maybe.”\n\n\t“You okay, though? You… know why this is happening?” she asks.\n\n\tYou nod. “It’s… yeah, I’m okay.”\n\n<<MillionTacos>>\n

“I’m really looking forward to trying dragon cooking,” you said, trying to be nice.\n\n\t“Mm,” was Alenne’s only response.\n\n<<AlreadyFrustrated>>\n

“I’ve been through worse,” you say softly. “Been through all this.”\n\n<<YesCaldeSays>>

You took a long walk under the stars together. The moon was full, you recall. The wind was a bit cold, but it gave you all the more reason to stay close to Calde. You ended up on campus, even though you were both there every day. You sat down on a bench in a small park across from the history building, and Calde sat down in the grass beside.\n\n\t“It’s so clear tonight,” he said, looking up at the sky. “Perhaps it’s a good omen. Clear skies for safe flights.”\n\n\tYou nodded, leaning against him a little.\n\n<<NoMoreTime>>\n

And that was that.\n\n\tSoon your belly started getting bigger. You had bouts of nausea in the mornings. You really were pregnant.\n\n\tEveryone at the office was a little confused, since they knew who you were dating, but they got you a nice card and a little cake when you started to show, regardless.\n\n\tAnd you finally wrapped your head around the fact that there was no more return. Soon you would not be human.\n\n\tYou started filling your time with human things. Foods, mostly, but other things as well. You built a tiny model boat that would be much too small for a dragon to do accurately. You taught yourself to play Cat’s Cradle for no particular reason other than you never had. You didn’t know if you would miss any of these things, but you knew you would never have another chance to do them.\n\n\tCalde watched. He said he understood, but you could tell he was worrying that you were having second thoughts.\n\n\tBut this wasn’t second thoughts. It was simply goodbye.\n\n\tAnd as you sit down to eat your tofu and udon, you start feeling ill before you’re even halfway through it. You can’t eat human food anymore. Calde, sitting next to you, holds you close, offering you some of his takeout, big containers of black pepper chicken without the rice or any sides. He can’t digest those sides without feeling sick. And now neither can you.\n\n\tAbout two weeks after switching to dragon food, you realize your neck is longer.\n\n\tYou had been feeling a bit disoriented for some reason the past few days, but this morning, you look in the mirror, and it’s obvious why. Your perspective is different because your neck is over two times longer. You run your hands over it to make sure it’s real. Even after everything, there was still a notion that you might be dreaming. But it was hard to think that now.\n\n\tThe moment you realize it, it becomes impossible to ignore that people are staring. You still read human from a distance, but the moment anyone gets closer, there’s a reaction as they realize.\n\n\tYou spend a good deal of time trying to adjust your monitor at work so you aren’t having to bend your neck painfully to see it well. You eventually have to put a binder under one side to lean it back a little.\n\n\tYou feel silly, but you text Calde to ask him to walk you home. He normally stays and grades papers, but he’s waiting for you.\n\n\t“Hi,” he says. He’s looking at your neck. You have to be in the office before his first class. He hadn’t gotten a look at the new development. “You okay?”\n[[It's kind of annoying.]]\n[[Everyone's staring at me.]]\n

“It’s more than I wanted, but we can handle it,” you said.\n\n\t“You need not raise all three,” Alenne said. “Just lay them. I have contacts. I will find families for them if I must. And I did not raise all of my dragonets. Most of them, but not all. But I was doing my part.”\n\n\tYou nodded.\n\n<<TheChangeIsNotEasy>>\n

You look down at the world below you, and laugh. It’s unbelievable to you, that you’re up here. It all looks so different.\n\n\t“You’ll get used to the view,” Calde says, flying as close as he dared without potentially messing up your flying.\n\n\t“I think I will, yes,” you say, nodding, smiling happily.\n\n<<SlowlyFly>>

And now, you had a different sort of proposal. This felt like what you were actually wanting when you thought of marriage. An undeniable statement that he was yours and you were his. Something that made sense for the both of you. Something to make sure you could be together longer, and share a family. You cried a little bit, thinking about that. You’re pretty sure, if Calde could have, he would have as well.\n\n\tA few weeks passed. You and Calde planned. He loaned you a small, extremely old book which attempted to explain the process in overly formal language. You read it, but did not feel particularly reassured. It felt like fantasy, and you had trouble, outside of a moment’s fleeting imagination, actually considering what the book described to be your future life.\n\n\tAnd then, on a weekend, you travelled to meet Calde’s mother. He hadn’t wanted to take you before. “She hates humans,” he had explained. “I don’t want to put you through that.” But he hoped she might open up now, since you were considering formally joining the family, as it were.\n\n“No matter what happens, I’m on your side,” Calde said as you finished packing. “We’ll leave and find a hotel or something if we have to.”\n\n[[Is it really going to be that bad?]]\n[[Maybe we should just do that instead. That sounds more fun.]]

You could tell Calde was already frustrated. “I thought she’d be warmer, bringing home someone I’m going to mate with… especially when she kept making such a fuss about how I was stalling...”\n[[She'll come around.]]\n[[She's nothing we can't handle.]]

“...it seems like you should have told me this already,” you said, processing. “This is… I mean, I believe you, I love you, but this is a huge cultural… thing that I have probably been annoying you with for years now, being ignorant.”\n\n\t“You haven’t done anything like that… and this is my fault. I should have trusted you earlier,” Calde said. “I understand if you’re upset.”\n\n\t“I am, a little. But I’m glad you finally told me,” you said.\n\n\t“I know I can trust you,” he said. “I could always trust you. I’m just… not supposed to trust you…”\n\n<<We'reMagical>>\n

You had rented a van for the trip, so you could both travel together for once. Calde clearly wasn’t used to cars. You had to stop a few times for his stomach to catch up.\n\n\t“I cannot wait until we can just fly together,” he said the second time you stopped. You had a hand on his back running over his scales while he tried to get ahold of his nausea.\n[[Then we'll just have to be stopping for me.]]\n[[That's such a strange thing to imagine.]]\n

\tThe pan sizzles as you drop another piece into the oil. You’re breading tofu, making little crispy strips for dinner to have on top of your noodles. You’ve never really done this before, honestly. More prep than the kind of meals you usually make. But it feels important to do this now. You’ve practically been vegetarian for a few weeks. Figured you might as well.\n\n\t“Smells surprisingly alright,” Calde says, sticking his head into the kitchen, not being willing to squeeze through the door just to check on you and potentially get in your way. “Though I assume it’s another vegetable thing.”\n\n\t“Tofu,” you say. “I didn’t buy any meat. I thought you had those papers to grade.”\n\n\t“I do,” he says. “But I can do that here, and be with you. Though I guess I’m going to have to order some takeout or something.”\n\n\t“Yeah, probably. Sorry.”\n\n\t“It’s not a problem,” he says. He’s hesitating, thinking. He watches you turn strips in the pan of oil. Finally, he asks, “Do you like tofu?”\n[[Not really.]]\n[[Yeah, I do.]]

“I want you to show me those things,” you manage to say. “Don’t… don’t hold back… it’s okay…”\n\n\tYou hear him sigh, softly. “You’re too nice to me…”\n\n\tYou shake your head. “I want to be something. I’m in between. I’m a monster. I want to be something again… maybe you can… I hope you can help me… I want to know what I am...”\n\n\tCalde nods and squeezes you tight. “I’ll do anything and everything to show you.”\n\n<<TooHungryToStay>>

You wanted to write about the first Human/Dragon War, from a more complete perspective. You’d only heard about it from other humans, but it was clear there was biases there, as with anything.\n\n\t“Well, I’m sure we have our biases too,” Calde had said, chuckling. “But that’s a good idea. There hasn’t been a whole lot of research trying to bring the two perspectives together. Most are happy to leave dragon history with us. What sort of angle do you want to take with it?”\n\n\t“I was thinking just a general thing, but maybe that’s too much to cover in a paper,” you said. “I was hoping you might have some ideas on where to focus.”\n\n\t“Oh, sure sure, let’s take a look,” he said, grabbing his textbook and bringing it over.\n\n<<LookedThingsOver>>

“Can I be selfish… for a second…” he says softly.\n\n\tYou nod.\n\n\t“I worry, more and more, you’re going to hate me after this…” he says. “That… that this is going to overshadow everything… us… and it was all my idea, and… I don’t want to lose you…”\n[[You don't know what to say to that.]]\n[[You understand why that's on his mind.]]\n

“Well, eventually. Soon,” you say. “That’s… where all this is going.”\n\n\t“That’s weird,” she says.\n\n\t“Is it?”\n\n\t“Yep.” Mika grins. “And kind of rad, honestly.”\n\n\t“Yeah,” you say, smiling a little.\n\n<<GonnaGetTo>>\n

A few days later, you spend a day in minor agony as claws break out from your skin and out of your fingertips. And two days after that, you wake up to find your ring and middle fingers have fused together.\n\n\tThe claws, besides the random spikes of pain, did not affect you much at work. You had typed with long nails before. It was not much different. But losing a finger on each hand made your normal touch typing impossible. You knew Calde only had four digits, so you knew this would happen at some point. But you still find yourself totally unprepared for how not being able to use a keyboard normally throws you off. You move to enter something without thinking and a random assortment of letters appears on the screen. You stare at them and feel overwhelmed.\n[[You excuse yourself for a moment.]]\n[[You power through the feelings.]]\n\n

“Thank you for understanding all this,” you say. You’re not sure you’ve said that directly to her before, even when you and Calde were just dating, what seems like forever ago.\n\n\t“It’s a lot to understand,” she says, chuckling. “But I know you and trust you. And as much love as is in this room right now, something has to be going right, eh?”\n\n<<AfterTheyHeadOut>>

“Everything I want to say… just feels in bad taste…” Calde says. “I want to tell you about when I got my fire… and how excited I was… and how long it took me to figure it out… but that… what just happened… I don’t blame you for not feeling that joyous… I don’t want to belittle that… I just… I don’t know how to balance telling you about the future… where you’re going… and not insulting where you’ve been…”\n\n\tYou try to say something, but it just kind of comes out as a noise. You press closer to him.\n\n\t“Because it’s not… you’re not going to be better, now… you were fine before, as a human, and you… you’ll be fine as a dragon… but there are… there are nice things… I want to show you the nice things… I see you sad, and I want to show you all the things I couldn’t before… but that feels… I don’t know…”\n[[I want you to show me those things.]]\n[[I worry I'll never be a good dragon.]]\n

“We’re… magical,” Calde said, clearly hesitating.\n\n\t“That’s what humans said once,” you said.\n\n\t“But… we really are. We need magic to reproduce, it’s… part of the thing…”\n\n\t“...you’re telling me magic is real, too?” you said.\n\n\t“...yes?” Calde said.\n[[Like, witches and potions and curses magic?]]\n[[Like, wizards and spell slots and magic missile magic?]]\n[[Like, fix life's problems with ease magic?]]

You power through the feelings and force yourself to switch to hunting and pecking. You feel like you’re going to explode for most of the day, and nearly jump when your boss comes back from lunch. When you get home, you find yourself slumping onto the ground and having to take a moment. You’re exhausted. And crying, a little.\n\n<<WipeYourEyes>>

“When I was young,” Alenne began.\n\n\t“Not this story again,” Calde said, looking away.\n\n\t“Humans sold me, sold me away. They didn’t care in the least. Just threw me to the dragons. And what did the dragons do? They took care of me, raised me, I had my choice of men to mate with. They cared about me. I know we have to deal with humans to some extent, but why pick someone comfortable in their skin, Calde? Someone who will bring those nasty human qualities to your dragonets?”\n\n\t“Have you ever even spent any time with humans in the last 100 years, Mother?” Calde said. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”\n\n\t“I know enough,” she said.\n\n\tThe room was silent, tense. Alenne looked like she was trying to set you ablaze with a stare.\n[[You stood your ground.]]\n[[Tell me about becoming a dragon so your son and I can leave.]]\n

“The way her scales shine in the light,” you said. “Like, I’m sure they do a lot of computer stuff and framing stuff, but it always looks like she’s covered in jewels, you know?”\n\n\tCalde chuckled and nodded. “A lot of computer stuff.”\n\n\t“Still though. She looks great.”\n\n<<SheLooksAttractive>>\n

“Is there something wrong with that?” you asked.\n\n\t“Nah,” she said. “But I couldn’t even imagine it myself. Like, scales and stuff.”\n\n\t“Calde has nice scales, though,” you said, and then immediately blushed as Mika burst into laughter.\n\n<<DragonsLiveLike>>\n

“The change, it is not easy,” Alenne said. “It is a human pregnancy, already difficult, with many other complications. You must be prepared for it. A lot of it is…” She looked for a word, and finally gave up. “It is a bit gross. Unsettling. But worth it, to leave your human skin behind.”\n\n\t“Calde gave me a book about it,” you said.\n\n\t“A book cannot do it justice,” she said.\n\n\t“Tell me about it, then.”\n\n\t“That is my job, yes.”\n\n\tFor over an hour, you listened to Alenne talk about what was in your future. It did seem gross. Kind of awful. But there was tone in how she talked about it. She seemed excited for you, in a way that you couldn’t help but feel was infectious. And at the end of it, she hugged you, and wished you luck.\n\n\tStill, you and Calde left that night, instead of staying. You both had had enough of Alenne for quite some time. The small-town motel that was closest to Alenne’s house was not really designed for dragons, and the woman at the desk was certainly quite overwhelmed by your presence, but neither of you cared. It had a bed, and Calde could squeeze through the door, and that was enough.\n\n\t“That was a disaster,” Calde said. He was curled up on the bed, with you lying atop him, head on his stomach.\n\n\t“That’s just parents, perhaps,” you said.\n\n\t“That’s not true. Your parents are very nice,” Calde said. “Took their kid showing up with a giant lizard boyfriend very well.”\n\n\t“Even they’re going to freak out when we tell them our plans,” you said. “Which I guess we need to schedule too.”\n\n\t“Yeah…” Calde said.\n\n\tYou both just laid there for a while. He was so warm. It was so easy to fall asleep on top of him. You felt lucky he found that cute.\n\n\t“Did Mother tell you everything you needed to know?” Calde asked softly, clearly unsure if he should break the silence.\n[[I think so.]]\n[[I have no idea.]]\n

You drank.\n\n\tIt tasted like drinking ash. But you swallowed it all down. And for a little while, you laid there on the bed, shuddering and shaking for reasons beyond you, while Calde held you, and told you everything was okay.\n[[Of course you'd both been intimate before.]]\n[[You were never one for sex.]]\n

“You know I’m not… capable of that, right?” you managed to ask. “I’m not… I mean, even if you were a human man, we couldn’t…”\n\n\t“I know, I know that,” Calde said. “We, I mean, I didn’t forget. But this is… this will take care of that, if you’re… okay with that being the kind of body you have for the rest of your life.”\n\n\t“...right…” you said. “Magic.”\n\n\tCalde nodded.\n\n<<CanIBackOut>>\n

“It’s the best I could do,” you say. “I’m too big now.”\n\n\tCalde nods. “We could… I don’t know, we could go shopping after we’re done here,” he says.\n\n\t“I don’t know if there’s much point to it,” you admit. “Don’t you have most of your vests and things custom-made?”\n\n\t“Yeah,” Calde admits. “Can’t really buy off a rack when you’re this large and have wings…”\n\n\t“So I’ll survive,” you say. “At least until I settle into whatever I’m settling into.”\n\n\t“Sure,” Calde says.\n\n<<TakesYouIn>>\n

But soon there was no more time to stall.\n\n\tYou sat on the bed. Calde gave you the glass he’d prepared things in.\n\n\tYou took it.\n\n\t“Ready?” he asked.\n[[You drank.]]

“But seriously, though, dragons live, like, a long time. How old even is he?” Mika asked.\n\n\t“Several hundred…” you said, trying to remember an exact number.\n\n\t“Isn’t that like, I dunno, dating your grandpa?”\n\n\t“No,” you said. “No, not… no.”\n\n\tMika just laughed again. “Well, I wish you luck with it. Really. Like, it’s been obvious you had the hots for him for most of our undergrad.”\n\n\t“Thanks,” you said, still feeling a bit embarrassed. Not that it was going to stop you. But it was easy to forget that what you might have with Calde wasn’t particularly normal. Mika was a clear reminder of that, even if she was on your side.\n\n\tAnd one night, several weeks later, as Calde walked you to your car after dinner, he said, “You know, Alex has been bothering me. Says we need to report dating coworkers so it’s on file.”\n[[Is that what we're doing?]]\n[[There's paperwork for that sort of thing?]]\n

You both lay there for a long time, until you’re both too hungry to stay. Calde orders some food and moves your basically destroyed table out to the dumpster. By the time you’re done eating, sitting next to him, you’re feeling a bit better.\n\n\t“You’re really warm,” Calde says, smiling softly.\n\n\tYou smile back.\n\n\tYou both eventually plan a free weekend day to go someplace safe and practice your fire. You’re a bit on edge waiting. You find yourself running for windows and doors every time your throat feels a little off. Nothing ever happens, but you figure you should be careful.\n\nYou come into work one day feeling a bit off-balance. Your feet had finally starting changing, making shoes impossible because of the claws. You teeter a bit as you walk. You figure it’s because you should walk on all fours, like Calde. But your arms aren’t long enough for that right now. So you spend the day leaning on walls and things. It isn’t that much of a big deal until you start worrying about your fire again, and in a rush to get outside, knock a huge stack of paperwork off of your desk in a poorly-timed wobble.\n\nWhen you come back inside, your boss is already starting to pick things up. Embarrassed, you hurry to help.\n\nShe gives you a look that makes you even more worried. She takes you into her office.\n\n“I hate to do this, but I’m going to make you take leave,” she says. “Well, I suppose I can’t make you, but I am telling you you should, now, instead of just suggesting it.”\n\n“Sorry…” you say, unsure what exactly you’re apologizing for.\n\n“You just don’t need to push yourself. We’ll be okay for a few weeks or whatever,” she says, and then thinks about it. “This is, like, similar to…”\n\n“Yes, should be about the same amount of time,” you say, a bit embarrassed.\n\n“Okay… sorry, wasn’t sure. But yes. We’ll be fine. I was already looking at people to cover when your kid came, there’s no reason I can’t talk to them earlier.”\n[[I'm sorry to put you through all this trouble.]]\n[[Thank you for being so accepting.]]

“Thanks for that,” you say sarcastically.\n\n\t“No, I mean, for real,” she says. “Are you okay? You doing okay?”\n\n\t“I’m having a tough time,” you say. “But I’m alright, I think.”\n\n<<MillionTacos>>

You don’t have an easier time making him eat than Calde, but you’re smiling during it all.\n\n\tYou spend a lot of time looking for a daycare. It takes you and Calde a while to convince one to take in your little guy.\n\n\t“Sure he’s not going to set anything on fire?” the lady at the daycare asks for the fifth time.\n\n\t“He won’t be able to breathe fire for another 15 years,” Calde says, trying to be patient.\n\n\t“Mm,” the lady says.\n\n\t“That was a nightmare. Again,” Calde says as you get some distance from the building to take to the air.\n\n\t“But they said yes this time,” you say.\n\n\tCalde nods, looking back to your child. You both have your tails wrapped around him, so he doesn’t run off, which is making him very upset, since he clearly wants to hit the button on the traffic light you’re passing. “I hope he’ll have fun there.”\n[[I'm sure he will.]]\n[[If he doesn't, we'll keep looking.]]

“Maybe it would be easier to just… meet…” you say.\n\n\t“Yes, yes, let’s get tacos, taco time.”\n\n\t“Sure!” you say, before realizing you’re unsure if you can still eat tacos. You think about it. They do those naked burrito things now, where they just throw toppings into a bowl. You could just have them leave a lot of stuff out. “Yes, let’s have tacos.”\n\n\tWhen you get to the restaurant, everyone is staring at you. You’re pretty used to it at this point. But Mika is sitting at a table, waiting, and staring too. That affects you more. You take a breath and sit down.\n\n\t“Some things, huh?” she says.\n\n\t“Yeah,” you say.\n\n\tShe chuckles. “You are hopeless. You’ve been ignoring me for this? Really?”\n[[I didn't really know what to do.]]\n[[Not ignoring, just avoiding a little.]]

You head to the barbeque place you both love. It’s been a few weeks since you came in, and the owner looks to you with a grin.\n\n\t“Almost a dragon now, hm?” they say.\n\n\tYou’re a bit too embarrassed to make eye contact, but Calde enthusiastically agrees, clearly happy to show you off. That makes you happy, but still, the attention is a bit much.\n\n\tYou’re halfway through a rack of ribs (you eat so much these days) before Calde speaks up.\n\n\t“There is something I’ve been meaning to talk about,” Calde says. “It’s nothing important, but my mother would kill me if I didn’t at least mention it. This way you won’t be blindsided by it.”\n\n\t“Your mom being involved worries me,” you say.\n\n\t“Really, it’s nothing…” Calde says. “It’s just traditional for newly made dragons to change their name to something more… draconic. I don’t care either way. You have a nice name, and I don’t really care about keeping the old traditions all that much. Archiving and protecting them, yes, doing them myself, less so. But mother will immediately mention it next time she sees you, and we probably can’t avoid her forever, so we should be prepared for that, if you want to keep yours.”\n\n\tYou nod, thinking. You had been wondering about that. Dragons that you were aware of always seemed to have very draconic names.\n\n\t“We don’t owe my mother anything, so don’t feel pressured. But maybe a new version of you needs a new name?” he asks. “I don’t know.”\n[[Maybe a clean break is what I need.]]\n[[I don't need a new name.]]

“You think we’ll always be together?” you asked, feeling a little overwhelmed by how matter-of-fact Calde made that statement.\n\n“Won’t we?” he said, suddenly worried. “I… hope we will. I want to be, as long as we can.”\n\n“I want to be too,” you said. “I do… it’s just… you just said it. You hadn’t said it before.”\n\nCalde looked embarrassed, but smiled. “I… suppose I hadn’t… clearly I should have.”\n\n<<ADifferentSortOfProposal>>

“The world seems harsh, sure, but I think you’ll like it,” you tell him as you gently lift him out of the remains of the egg.\n\n<<FetchedATowel>>

“But I’m not really human anymore,” you say. “So it’s not that big of a deal to me.”\n\n\tCalde smiles a little. “I suppose not…”\n\n<<ShareALongHug>>

“Do you not think she looks attractive?” you asked.\n\n\t“Oh, no, she’s… you’re right, she’s a beautiful dragon,” Calde said. He was avoiding eye contact. “Just… not my type, I guess.”\n\n\t“What is your type?” you asked.\n\n\tCalde chuckled. “Oh… you know…”\n\n\t“Do I?”\n\n\tHe looked back to you, smiling an embarrassed but bright smile. “I think you do.”\n\n\tYou blushed brightly.\n\n\tYou knew you had feelings for him, some kind of feelings, but it was the first moment where it occurred to you that Calde might have those feelings too. That this might be more than a friendship. That this //could// be more than a friendship. It was a lot to take in, but it was exciting, too.\n\n\tYou talked about it with your friend Mika the next day.\n\n\t“I cannot believe your guts,” she said, grinning. “Like, not even human!”\n[[That's the appeal.]]\n[[Is there something wrong with that?]]\n

Calde comes in, still half asleep until he sees what you’re looking at.\n\n\t“I think it’s over,” you say.\n\n\tHe hugs you so tightly.\n\n\tCompared to everything else, laying an egg feels easy.\n\tNeither Calde or you want to, but seeing as his mother is the closest dragon with experience nearby, you invite Alenne to help with the whole process. She makes plenty of trouble up until the moment it’s time to lay the egg containing her grandson. Then she’s all business.\n\n\t“Push more… more!” Alenne says as you try your best to do just that. The egg feels so big. The whole situation seems impossible.\n\n\t“Come on!” Alenne urges. “Just a bit more!”\n\n\t“Breathe… you can do this…” Calde says, claws on your shoulders, clearly just as nervous as you are.\n\n\t“Push!” Alenne nearly yells at you.\n[[You push.]]

“Not ignoring, just avoiding a little,” you admit.\n\n\t“You have to, have to tell me this stuff up front, you have to,” Mika says. “I’m your friend, right? I gotta know this stuff.”\n\n<<LookLikeAMonster>>

“I am,” you say.\n\n\tAnd you mean it.\n\n<<AfterTheyHeadOut>>

“I’m so glad I get to share this with you,” he said softly.\n\n\tThere was an energy between you, and not a metaphorical one. Every bit of contact, of even simple touch, sent something through you that made you feel flush, almost feverish. It was worse as he ran his tongue over you, as his ready cock brushed against you, making it hard to think about anything else. Not that you wanted to anyway. But you remember feeling so overwhelmed. You remember thinking “I guess magic is real.”\n\n\tYou passed out almost immediately after spending yourself, shuddering against him. And when you woke again, he was still there, holding you, watching you.\n[[I love you.]]\n[[Guess you're stuck with me now.]]\n