#dragon len

What a curious creature Len had happened upon. It smelled familiar, but he hadn’t stumbled on what he took this creature to be in a very long time.

He was lithe and tall but huddled into a ball as if to make himself smaller. He was beautiful with dark hair, green eyes, and freckles that were more easily noticed with how the faint flow of the phosphorescent cave walls made the scarlet scales along his cheekbones glitter.

A red dragon in human form. Only he clearly couldn’t control hiding his true nature, which meant he was likely a half-breed.

Like Len.

Len hadn’t taken human form in decades. It grew too tiresome, the stigma against him when people found out what he was. And he was from a line of silver dragons, which often lived their whole lives among humans. Somehow, being a half-breed took all the good will leant to silver dragons and made it moot.

He was something that shouldn’t exist, at least not in these lands, where species weren’t meant to interbreed.

If this young man was part red dragon, then humans would never accept him.

The huddled half-breed looked up with a start, glancing in the direction of where Len hid. “Is… someone there? Uncle Eobard? Can we go home now?”

He scrambled up to his feet and darted forward to the bend in the cave that Len was peeking around. Len drew back, but the young man still saw the piercing blue eyes and silvery scales of his dragon form.

“D-dragon!” He immediately backpedaled. “Help! Someone help me, please!”

Didn’t he know that silver dragons were benevolent? And what was he so scared of, when he was a much more powerful kin? Len, while he could take dragon form, was still weaker than a full silver dragon. He’d never be able to stand up against an adult red, half or otherwise.

This boy must know absolutely nothing.

“Calm down,” Len rumbled, lumbering out of his hiding spot to enter the larger cavern. “Can’t you see my scales? I’m friendly.” Usually.

“I… I don’t understand.” The boy flattened himself to the cave wall. “All dragons are dangerous.”

“True, but not all would wish you harm. Don’t you know that? Or was your dragon parent a typical red tyrant that skewed your perception?” For Len, it had been his human parent, his father, who was the scoundrel who seduced a beautiful dragon for the power of having her at his call.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” the boy stammered.

Oh.

Len had to handle this differently. Even though it had been decades, he knew how to shrink into his human self, and did so smoothly. He wore the clothes he’d last had on, which brought up some not so pleasant memories of when he killed his father. At least his simple black tunic, trousers, and leather surcoat didn’t have any blood on it.

Len had transformed and frozen his father solid with his breath, never to turn human again.

Until now.

The boy stared in awe. He looked like he’d only just turned eighteen, Len realized, as he drew closer. He’d come of age and still had no idea what he was.

“Don’t you know where your scales come from? I know how to hide mine, but they’re still there.” Len let his silvery scales reappear along his cheekbones and on the back of his hands.

The boy blinked in deeper amazement but still said, “I… I have a condition.”

“Yes, and it’s that one of your parents was a red dragon.”

“That’s impossible! My parents were both human. They died when I was a baby and Uncle Eobard raised me, but my marks keep getting more visible and spreading, and he said if I stayed in this cave, it might cure me.”

Oh.

“Was one of your parents a redhead?”

“…yes. My mother. Why?”

Maybe she wasn’t so terrible a red dragon, but the townsfolk had clearly not cared and killed his parents, and now that Barry was of age, they wouldn’t suffer him in their midst either.

“What’s your name?”

“Barry.” He’d started to relax, though he still held back against the wall.

Len kept approaching, until they were only a few feet apart.

“My uncle is coming back for me. He just told me to be patient and wait. Once my marks go away, he’ll come back.”

“No, he won’t. Because those marks aren’t ever going away. You can learn to hide them, but that won’t change what you are.”

“You’re wrong!” Barry launched forward, his green eyes flashing red, as he slammed his palms into Len’s chest, knocking him back. There was that fiery red dragon temper. Though he immediately looked startled by his reaction and backed up again. “He didn’t abandon me…”

“Let’s say he didn’t. You can’t sit here all alone waiting for something to happen. You need food, water, a place to rest. I can provide all those things, if you’ll trust me.” Len held out his hand.

Barry stared fixated on his silvery scales. “But… what if Eobard can’t find me when he comes back?”

“I know when people enter my cave, and we can check every day. Okay?”

The skepticism on Barry’s face was almost as potent as his denial.

Len shouldn’t be offering this. Red dragons were dangerous, the most dangerous, but he couldn’t help a feeling of pity and kinship, and he’d been alone for such a long time.

Was commissioned to do these three pieces by the lovely @thevoiceofdragons

Tagging peeps: @mockingbird-22 @crimsondomingo @nixie-deangel @redcharade @yukiothecollielover @elithequeer @daughterofscotland  @kipsiih @sugary-bowl @pheuthe

Individual pieces below the cut.

Summary:

It was Barry’s fault, and Len would argue any who tried to disagree with him. He wouldn’t have started hoarding the young hero, if said young hero hadn’t looked so..so delicious in different shades of blue.

Day Six, Leonard Snart.

Only True in Fairy Tales: A Coldwave AU

Mick is an ogre who just wants to be left alone. When fairy tale creatures are forced into his swamp by a greedy lord who wants to be king, he’s sent on a quest to collect a prince from a castle protected by a dragon as payment for clearing his home. When he gets there, however, there’s no dragon--only a grumpy prince that refuses to go with him quietly. Mick drags the stubborn ass out of the castle and tells him the deal he’s made--his hand in marriage to the lord for Mick’s swamp--and practically throws the prince over his shoulder to bring him along. 

The prince--Len--is reluctant to go along, but eventually finds himself falling for the ogre. When the sun goes down, however, Len still feels the need to hide the truth about himself...