Nahbdeen: Take care and fair fortune, little brother. Many tears would be shed should you come to harm.

I was looking to do a quick pin-up in my comfortable style to see if I could… A friend suggested Radiant Nahbdeen since I like the character a lot, because he's like Varshahn's big brother!

Again, FFXIV's Au Ra scales are so relaxing to draw.

Day 20: Anon

Spoilers for Endwalker, including 6.2 patch.

The problem, Nahbdeen surmised, was that Estinien and Vrtra were at the same time perfect for each other and a complete mismatch. Vrtra wanted to be small, nonthreatening, something nobody would fear. Estinien on the other hand...if Nahbdeen read the man right (and he was a man whose book contained very short words) Estinien had a fondness for being conquered by something bigger and more powerful that had to fight for the right to do so. Something a dragon would be perfectly equipped to do if the dragon was literally anyone but Vrtra.

It was enough to make a man want to pull his hair out. 

—

There was an old proverb Nahbdeen's father (rest his soul but the man was a pillock) used to use that went something like "You can only talk properly to the ones you look in the eye". It was meant to insinuate a man's inability to relate to women by referring to their inherent height discrepancy. A bit sexist,put most of the shorter races out of the running completely, and honestly not even all that true. 

Case in point: Nidhana. Unlike his Raen sisters, the Arkasodara woman was perfectly capable of looking Nahbdeen in the face without getting a stepladder. Unlike his sisters, she could talk at a level that made him feel eye-height to a Lalafell. 

"Still, I think we've really made progress with the aetherial conduits, even if the junction valves are still less dynamic than I'd like," she was saying as Nahbdeen lounged against her work table, nodding along. Not that he knew what any of this meant, but he was reading her tone more than her words on this.

"What's that translate to in terms of timeline?"

"Oh, we're still quite on schedule! I anticipate no more than a month, tops."

"Good. Because lord, those two…"

Nidhana laughed, her trunk curling up in that cute little spiral. "You do know the stated purpose of this simulacrum is combat and exploration in a hostile environment, yes? Not to improve diplomatic relations with Ishgard?"

"Given the diplomatic envoy in question, those two missions are practically the same thing."

"And your own diplomatic endeavors have nothing to do with your interest, I'm sure." Nidhana's dark-amber eyes glinted with amusement as she winked at him. Nahbdeen drew himself up, shoulders back and pompous. 

"I can't imagine what you're implying, my lady alchemist. I am merely helping the Azure Dragoon and our beloved Satrap train in the art of lance and spear combat."

Nidhana's trunk coiled up again, this time to try and stifle the sound of her laughter. "Ah, yes. All that rigorous spear thrusting. For combat purposes."

"And exercise. Don't forget, it's very essential for health," Nahbdeen added, leaning in to wiggle his eyebrows at her. 

"But of course, but of course." Nidhana covered the tip of her trunk and gripped it hard until the tremors of mirth calmed.  "Ah, Vrtra would devour me if he knew we'd been plotting all this behind his back. Or just be disappointed, which is worse."

Day 17: Novel

Took me half the month but we finally arrived at spicy content. A continuation of earlier prompts (One, Two, Three), this contains both Endwalker spoilers (pre-6.2 patch) and M/M/dragon spicy content, along with some voyeurism/exhibitionist themes.

Day 14: Attrition

Ironically, Estinien was proving to be the harder sell. Getting him to agree wasn't the hard part, he'd shrugged his shoulders and looked away and muttered that he'd TOLD Vrtra their seperation from each other wouldn't be a trouble but if it made the dragon feel better he'd do it. The problem was agreement with any measure of enthusiasm.

We have a word for that sort of thing in Ishgard." Estinien said, leaning against the wall in that casually sexy way he did.

"Yes, I understand Ishgard's standards are...different."

"Hmph." Estinien chuckled. "To be fair, according to the old scripture laying with dragons is the greatest heresy possible. Anything else further down the chain from that is small popotos."

The brief flicker of humor faded from his eyes in moments. It was, frankly, rather miserable to see, like a moment of glorious sunlight before the rains set in again.

"I am sure having to tend to a mortal with a mortal's...needs...is difficult enough for him as it is." "I don't know. I think he finds it charming. Look how much like he likes pretending to be one, after all. Seems to find our bodies satisfying enough to look at." Estinien clicked his tongue, scoffing. Behind him, the setting sun gleamed through his window overlooking the rest of Megadhuta, golden light soaking into the brilliantly painted clay and stonework.

This one, though? For all that it's done to his race, as some tyrannical regime's unwitting weapon? Perhaps it is best that you be there after all, I cannot imagine how he could bear to touch me." His face seized up, as if he had said to much. Before Nahbdeen could formulate a reply he'd snatched up his lance and dropped backwards out the window. Nahbdeen had a moment of sheer armor-messing panic, and then caught the gleam of Estinien leaping to a turret twenty feet across the courtyard.

"Then I'll see you later tonight?" he shouted out across the divide. Estinien paused in his place on on the roof, lance in one hand and the other hanging from the edge of a roof eave.

Day 13: Confluence

Contains Endwalker spoilers, but occurs before Patch 6.2.

---

Even with the raw evidence of his own eyes and ears telling him he was standing next to an ancient, powerful, and venerable dragon whose father harkened from outside the star itself, all Nahbdeen saw when he looked at Vrtra was their 'Little Brother'. 

Maybe it was the fact he had four actual little siblings of his own, and had been particularly vigorous in ruffling Varshahn's hair as he passed by on one official duty or another. The way the dragon spoke, that vibrato deep voice in halting and nervous tones, even the way he pulled in his wings and hunched to make himself seem less threatening, the almost adorable way that single red eye looked sadly at him as he nervously described the dilemma he was facing…no, Nahbdeen could never muster up fear of this creature. Barely even awe, and certainly not now.

Smidgen of pity, maybe. 

"Have you tried asking him about it?"

"Aye. He says it does not trouble him."

"No, I mean have you asked him if he wants to…I don't know, find a workaround." Nahbdeen made a few hand gestures that only left Vrtra raising his eyebrow in confusion. "Toys or something."

"I do not..I would not want him depriving himself of what he could otherwise have, because of me. He has suffered far too much deprivation at my race's hands as it is."

Dear sisters, if he brought up Nidhogg again…it was clear to anyone with even one eye that Estinien didn't blame Vrtra for his brother's sins, but Nahbdeen was sick of arguing about it.

Besides. He had a better idea, and one that might get him some modicum of reward for how much he had to listen to his satrap's relationship angst.

"What if you got a proxy?"

"A what."

"I mean, obviously your simulacrum would be inappropriate for this, but that isn't your only other option. A proxy could handle the small, detail work that your body could not."

"I." Vrtra's tail flickered from side to side, scraping the walls.  His widened eye spoke of terror that one normally never saw in the eyes of such a massive creature. "My dear captain, I am talking about something far more intimate than…than whatever you are talking about."

"Of course. And for something like that you would want only your most trusted servant on the case." He banged his gauntleted hand against his chest armor proudly. "I would be happy to help enrich your relationship with the master dragoon, Satrap!"

"By…"

"By acting as your hand and your will, as I always do, even if this battlefield is far more unorthodox."

"I could–no!" Vrtra turned his head sharply away, pulling into himself. "To use one of my own people for such selfish ends would be unthinkable, even if he were to agree. It would be akin to–"

Nahbdeen reached out and patted his ankle, an intimacy almost no one beyond the former satraps had taken with him. "Satrap, I know you are a wyrm and not a man, and so there are some things that you do not understand on the level that we mortals do, just as I will never know what it is to fly on my own wings or live to see a mountain wear itself away into dust. But if you trust me as your arm, then you will trust me on this: Your man Estinien is so gorgeous the divinities themselves would weep to see him bathing. He has cheekbones I could sharpen my sword on. I would take a full demotion just for the opportunity to see what his orgasm face looks like. Do you understand me, Satrap?"