#qdma 3

Since Eren had fallen on that lone dragon, the latter hadn’t stopped following him and had insisted to sleep with him last night. The young man had been so tired at that time that he hadn’t even put a fight, something that he was beginning to regret.

“Hush,” Eren muttered to make the black dragon shut up.

He was getting a headache and Afelah’s disturbed rumble wasn’t helping. Her golden antlers were digging uncomfortably on his neck and Eren didn’t dare push her away from her hiding spot. Not when she’d finally seemed to get along with the lone dragon.

Last night had been weird, between falling and touching that strange dragon that had been following him since last year, talking with a weird old man and, finally, getting to meet that weird old man’s wife and being almost forced to stay the night in their daughter’s room.

And here he was, surrounded by unicorns, pinkness and glitter.

Eren thinned his lips and stretched under the heavy comforter, trying his best to ignore the black dragon’s contented purrs at his feet and Afelah’s answering croons.

A small knock at the glittery bedroom door pierced through the contentment and Eren immediately tensed, Afelah jumping on his shoulder and hissing threateningly while the black dragon skedaddled under the bed. However, the door stayed closed, something that made the brunet sigh in relief while a warm and welcoming voice began to talk to him.

“Young man? Are you awake? I need to go fetch Dot at the pub, that old fool probably fell asleep on the toilet again… You’re free to leave whenever you want. Though I am sure that Dot would want to talk more with you. Also, feel free to take some clothes from the wardrobe, nobody uses them anymore.”

Eren glanced at Afelah, his dragon blinking slowly while she shook her head. They stayed put, their ears following attentively the sound of the lady puttering around the house until she left, the door staying unlocked behind her. The dark dragon’s head popped from under the bed and glanced at the duo, confusion shining bright among the grey eyes.

“I know,” Eren sighed and put his feet on the fluffy pink carpet. “That was really weird.”

The black dragon blinked and then sneezed. It looked quite startled at the sudden sound and went back to his seemingly new favorite spot, meaning Eren’s feet. Meanwhile, the owner of said feet just blinked wearily at the fluffy pink carpet and readied himself of another day full of walking down the streets while avoiding a dreadful ending by a very terrifying someone.

Afelah grumbled and snapped her maw at him, making the young man realize that he’d spent way too much time thinking over his day and yet not moving to do it.

Eren gave his dragon a grateful smile and then glanced around him. Since the weird old couple wasn’t around, he doubted that they’d mind if he took some clothes from their wardrobes. After all, the lady had said so.

However, just from seeing the pinkness and fluffiness of the bedroom, Eren kind of feared what he’d end finding in that wardrobe. He looked at said wardrobe and gulped. Was it some trick of the lights or was that wardrobe actually looming over him?

The black dragon squeaked annoyingly and softly nipped at Eren’s uncovered feet. Grimacing, the young man jumped away from the bed and made the two steps needed to get to the wardrobe. It was covered with posters of some forgotten rock band and more glitter.

Afelah skittered to his side, her claws digging painfully on his bare torso while she climbed until she got to her favorite spot on her neck. Eren sighed and scratched her scales under her mouth.

“I know,” he muttered grumpily. “We can’t complain.”

His dragon blinked slowly in approval and began purring softly.

Like every other time Levi worked in the early morning shift, he’d ended up cuffed and sitting in the backseat of a police car. And like every other time this happened, the man couldn’t even be bothered to explain that he was innocent.

It wasn’t like the policemen would care. After all, A-Drake people weren’t even considered citizen.

“There’s a car in the driveway,” Eyebrows commented as Fringe began to slow the car. “I’ll go talk to the widow. Stay in the car.”

The ‘And don’t let the A-Drake escape’ went unsaid but Levi snorted and rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t like he wanted to get out. The weather had turned colder and foggier during their ride and if there was something Levi hated more than being unfairly inculpated, it was walking in the fog.

It reminded him too much of the day he’d lost his dragon.

Fringe grunted something that Levi didn’t hear (nor did he want to) and leaned back against his seat. Meanwhile, Eyebrows walked to the Pixis’ door and pushed on the doorbell. Nobody answered the call and Levi rolled his eyes again. Seems like this was going to take some time. And Fringe seemed to think the same because the policeman’s dragon snorted loudly and curled around his master’s forearm.

Levi looked away, his throat tightening as he remembered better days when his dragon had insisted on always having a claw on him. He coughed softly and slowly leaned against the car window. The fog rolled around, turning into wispy fingers that brushed against the metal and Levi closed briefly his eyes. Sometimes, that lost feeling he always had in the fog even made him think that his dragon was actually still alive. And that he was waiting for him to rescue him from whatever evil thing had taken him away.

The sudden sound of Fringe unbuckling his seatbelt startled Levi away from his dark thoughts and he looked up at the policeman. His dragon was slowly kneading the damp ground under its tiny paws and the dirty blond man’s face didn’t let any of his nervousness appear on his face.

“Don’t even think of running away,” he told Levi with a threatening finger.

The latter merely rolled his eyes and went back to looking through the window. It was way more interesting than watching two policemen interrogate a recently widowed woman.

The stridently sharp sound of the doorbell startled Eren and he almost made Afelah fall from her perch on his shoulders. He silently apologized to his fuming dragon, got out of the shower and walked to the window, hiding against the wall to see who was at the door while he quickly secured a towel around his hips.

The familiar sight of a police uniform made his heart stop and he began to panic. He was unclothed, his backpack was in the pink bedroom while all of his clothes were drying in the bathroom, and Afelah was already chittering in a panicked fashion.

The sharp bite of the black dragon’s beak on his toes made Eren break through his panic. He took the first bunch of clothes he could find in the wardrobe and put them on before he ran to the bathroom. The dark and tattered wings fluttered as the dragon crawled behind him, a distressed croon echoing in his inflating throat. The young man didn’t even blink as he turned around and took the second dragon in his arms, Afelah grunting in an annoyed tone before she curled her tail around the black dragon’s neck. It hung there like a blue necklace and the two dragons seemed to get into a silent agreement of not contesting Afelah’s total power on the other reptile.

In the meantime, Eren had rushed into the bathroom and had thrown all his wet clothes into the backpack, taking some soap too because it never hurt to have some. The two dragons hung in the bath, their globous eyes never leaving the young man’s lithe body as he moved around.

But, just as suddenly as the doorbell had rung, the two dragons began to rumble threateningly and skittered close to the brunet.

Eren gulped loudly and tightened his grip on his backpack. He knew what those rumbles meant.

“Quick!” he screeched, forgetting all about being discreet while the ‘fight or flight’ instinct began to war in him.

Afelah decided for himself because she stopped rumbling and jumped inside his backpack. The black dragon’s rumble continued on as he jumped out of the bath and used his tattered wings to give himself a boost to climb on Eren’s right shoulder. The young man didn’t even blink and just put his backpack on his back before he considered his options.

The front door was a clear no, since there were policemen hanging there. And they had surely heard his screech, Eren gritted his teeth and shook his head. He didn’t have time to panic, that man was coming.

So, since the front door was impossible to go through, that left him the back door. Or any window close to the ground.

The brunet glanced at the bathroom window and grimaced. It was way too small to let him go through. However, the window in the glittery bedroom he’d used would be perfect. Even if it was just above the police car patrol parked near the weird old couple’s house, Eren was ready to bet Afelah’s beloved golden antlers that he’d be able to get away safely.

Nodding to himself, Eren stalked into the bedroom and ripped the pink and fluffy bedsheets. The black dragon flew awkwardly to the window and clawed it open before he let out a proud croon. The young man thanked him with a grateful smile and checked if the bedsheets were correctly tied. Then, feeling like he’d done everything he could do in this kind of situation, Eren tied the bedsheets to the heavy wardrobe and jumped through the window.

Levi blinked sleepily, his forehead stuck against the cold window and narrowed his eyes. He was pretty sure he’d heard a familiar croon. But that was stupid. The only dragon he’d recently heard crooning was Hanji’s terrifying spawn of the devil and it didn’t sound at all like his.

The fog rolled around, his heart quickened as he heard someone approaching the car and he narrowed his eyes. The mist seemed to clear around just enough to make him able to see the black dragon totting after an undiscernible silhouette. His heart stopped.

“Ma-,“ Levi’s lips moved on their own and he tried to open the door, his cuffed hands scratching uselessly against it.

Rage began to pour in him, mixing with the irresistible hope that had surged forth when he’d seen it. He needed to get out, to find him. He needed to GET OUT.

Levi gritted his teeth and kicked with all his strength the window. The glass shattered and the dark haired man jumped through it, uncaring of the sharp edges of the window digging through his uniform and slashing his face. He needed to follow that person.

He hit the floor with his shoulder and didn’t let the pain faze him. It was almost as if he was in a daze since he’d seen that dragon. And Levi was pretty sure that nobody or nothing would stop him in this chase. His feet finally hit the floor and he immediately ran after the silhouette. The latter seemed to be avoiding the policemen and Levi huffed angrily. It was probably Pixis’ murderer. And some kind of dragon stealer.

They ran through the empty and foggy streets, their feet and claws hitting regularly the macadam in an almost hypnotic sound.

Levi shook his head and quickened his steps, injuring silently whoever had the black dragon with them.

Finally, after what seemed to have been hours and probably had only been minutes, the silhouette stopped in a children playground and vanished into the fog. Levi swore loudly and jumped into the mist, an angry snarl on his lips.

“GET OUT!” the scream that came out of his panting mouth had been anything but threatening. It was a prayer, a begging prayer that Levi had made in his mind for days and finally escaped.

Something skittered around him and an empty can got kicked toward him. Levi fell to his knees and shook his head. The skittering something approached him but Levi didn’t look up. He wouldn’t be able to live if it was once again an illusion.

“Who are you?”

The voice surprised him. Levi was more accustomed to hearing a dragon’s contented croon or annoyed rumble in those kind of hallucinations. But this voice, soft and yet with a firm undertone, was a new addition.

The dark haired man blinked and finally looked up.

Through the heavy fog two familiar grey eyes glinted with recognition before the mist parted around the silhouette Levi had stalked for hours. It was a young man, with a heavy mop of chestnut colored hair and shining distrustful green eyes. His pale lips were dehydrated and thinned in a distrustful fashion but Levi was sure that, were the young man correctly fed, those lips would have been a siren call for kisses.

But the perfect antidote for those lips were, no doubts at all, those clothes.

“Who are you,” asked once again the man wearing a flowery crop-top with yoga pants that showed the whole world that he didn’t wear any underwear.

Eren had had weird mornings before. But this one?

It was by far the weirdest.

First he woke up in that pink bedroom, then he’d to follow Afelah’s extremely strict rules to get some clean clothes (that dragon was way too peculiar about what kind of textiles he could use), he’d had to jump through a window to escape some nosy policemen, run away from an angry garbage man and now this.

“So you know him?” Eren asked while he stretched his hand towards the black scaled dragon.

The latter was happily stretched on the bench they were all sitting. His two legs were twitching happily on the not so angry anymore garbage man while his head with the eyes closed and fluttering nostrils was laying all over Eren’s lap.

Not So Angry Anymore Garbage Man (or NSAAGM) nodded sternly, his grey eyes never leaving the dragon.

“I do,” he said with a weirdly strangled voice, almost as if he were overwhelmed by the sight of a dragon abandoning all sense of proper decorum.

Eren could understand. The man wore the distinct bracelet all Drakeless people had. If he ever lost Afelah (and wasn’t that a disturbing thought when he thought about the man he’d been hiding from for months now), Eren was pretty sure that he would cherish the moment some dragon decided to use his legs as a pillow.

Afelah stirred in her hiding spot and one of her sharp claws pierced through the thin fabric of the backpack, prickling softly Eren’s right arm. It eased his breathing and the young man smiled softly toward the quivering muzzle peaking from a corner of the backpack. Like always, Afelah had his back and had made sure that he’d keep his calm.

Nothing would ever feel like having his own dragon around.

This realization made him pity the NSAAGM whose A-Drake brace was badly hidden by his uniform.

“His name is Ma’or,” NSAAGM added with a stronger voice.

The strangely muffled voice had quickly transformed into a no-nonsense tone that reminded Eren a bit of one of his best friends.

“Ma’or?” Eren repeated with a small frown. It sounded familiar, like something he’d have heard before.

“Yeah,” the stranger nodded and his grey eyes glinted with a nostalgic light. “I was going for “Major Pain in the Ass” but I bit my tongue. So Ma’or it was.”

Eren slowly blinked.

“W-wait, he’s your dragon?!” he screeched nervously seconds before he jumped to his feet and put some distance between the NSAAGM and himself.

How could this man, who wore the evident mark of being a person without a dragon in the eye of the society, be the master of that black and gentle dragon? And how could both of them have survived living separated from each other for a whole year?

They were one soul, for Drake’s Sake!

Ma’or’s human nodded slowly.