Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was once a time when everything was different.

♡                             ~                             ♡

13 years old

Hajime blinked the heaviness of sleep from his eyes as he yawned and stretched, his spine curling into an artful ark. His stomach began to ache with hunger and he clambered off in search of his mother. His steps echoed as he scampered through the dark comfort of his home. He burst out into the newborn sunlight, morning dew collecting on his limbs.

"Mama!" Hajime called, "Mama!" His cries stirred the air of the fresh early morning, earning him glares from many small animals that lounged, milking the last few moments of sleep. Hajime found his mother in her garden, surrounded by strange plants that he didn't care to know the name of, but he knew very well to stay away from. He stopped at the edge of the thick greenery and called again. This time she looked up. Vibrant green eyes much like his bore into Hajime. Her body dropping slightly, she answered her ailing son.

"Yes my little dragonfly?"

"Is there any food?" Hajime's mother laughed, smooth like the honey she collected from the bees for her plants.

"Why don't you go ask your father? He should be back with the days catch. Oh, and Hajime?"

"Yes Mama?"

"Don't forget to wake up your brother."

"But mama! I woke up first! And he always steals my food!"

"Hajime!"

".....yes, mama."

"Good, and don't step on those plants on your way out they're for your father's back pain."

"Yes mama!" Hajime turned and raced away, taking care not to step on any plants, towards their home. Sneaking through much quieter than he went, he found his brothers ledge and clambered up. With a huge grin, he screeches in his younger brother's ear.  The resulting yelp and thump as Tetsu fell was extremely satisfactory.

"That should teach you not to steal my food!" Hajime preened.

"PAPA! HAJIME IS BEING MEAN TO ME!" Tetsu screamed. The tattletale smoke that rose from his father's nostrils showed his irritation.

"Hajime, play nice with your brother."

"But he keeps stealing my food!" He cried in protest, ignoring his brother's "Did not!" that followed the statement.

"Neither of you will get any food if you keep behaving this way."

"But he's-" "Why do I-"

"That's ENOUGH!" his fathered roared, "PLAY NICE OR NO PLAYING AT ALL! I AM SICK OF YOUR BICKERING!" The two cowered under their father's anger.

"Honey, what’s wrong?" his mother asked, entering the cave.

"They won't stop fighting! No matter what I do, they just keep going at each other's throats!" the large dragon grumbled at his wife.

“Boys!” their mother said. An angry father was one thing, but an angry mother was another. Said dragonets squealed and scampered towards the exit of the cave. As they left, Hajime heard his mother tell her mate, “They’re only dragonets, love. They’ll grow out of it…”

♡                             ~                             ♡

“This is all your fault!” hissed Hajime, “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be in trouble!”

“My fault?! How is it my fault?!” They continued to bicker until they heard a soft groan. Both brothers jumped and turned towards the sound. There a dragonet their age lie unmoving, a little on the larger side not unlike Hajime himself, but certainly broader than Tetsu’s rather lithe looking appearance. His scales, a rich dark brown, like the color of fertile soil, was dappled with patches of dark green. He blended in with the undergrowth so completely that Hajime wouldn’t have known he was there at all if it hadn’t been for the small sound. Hajime wasn’t even sure if he was conscious.  

To test this, he reached over and poked the unmoving figure. Getting no reaction, he looked to his brother.

“Maybe we should turn him over…?” Tetsu suggested tentatively. Hajime nodded. It was a good idea, the belly is the most sensitive part of a dragon’s body. Beckoning Tetsu over with his tail, they turned the strange dragonet over. Immediately, a long jagged wound down his stomach began to bleed profusely, and the blood seeping from the wound began to stain the dirt of the forest floor. Hajime stared, horrified by the blood.

“I-I’m going to get mama!” Tetsurou said, “You stay here and try to stop the bleeding!” A whoosh of wind behind him told him that Tetsurou had taken flight. Hajime ran to the nearest patch of green leaves and pressed them into the gushing, angry wound. Hajime sat there for what seemed like forever, uselessly trying to slow the flow of life from the dragonet. When his mother and Tetsu landed, he nearly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Out of my way!” his mother barked. Hajime complied without complaint. Hajime scurried to the small stream and dipped his small talons in the cool spring water. The blood made a soft trail with the current. As a second thought, he cupped his talons together, and brought water with him to his mother.

“Do you need any water?” he asked timidly.

“Yes, try to wake him up and drink some. Tetsu, you too.” His brother who had been previously panicking next to his mother immediately ran off to the river. Hajime walked over and splashed his water in the dragonet’s face. Coughing, he blinked open his warm brown eyes.

“Try not to move! I’m trying to help you!” his mother told the dragonet.

“Mother...village….”

“W-what happened?” Tetsu asked.

“Oh, you’re back with the water, let him drink it, hurry!” Tetsu tipped his talons towards the dragonet and he drank the water.

“What’s your name?” Hajime asked.

“Daichi.” he said and began to cough. His mother was stitching him up and applying paste and bandages to the wound.

“Do you know who did this?” asked his mother.

“The bad dragons….wanted father’s land…..” whispered Daichi. His head rolled back, and he went limp. Rather harassed looking, his mother scooped him up and took flight. Hajime and Tetsurou weren’t far behind.

“Mama?” Tetsu called.

“Yes?”

“What’s gonna happen now?”

“Well, I don’t know darling.” Hajime whimpered. They touched down in front of their cave and their mother hurried Daichi inside. Their father jumped up in surprise when he saw them.

“Whats wrong? Who is that?” he asked.

“I think our neighbors just got attacked!” answered his mother.

“Dammit! We have to help them!”

“I agree! There might be survivors!” They soared out of the cave with a ‘Watch over Daichi and don’t leave’ thrown over their shoulders. Hajime turned to his brother.

“This is bad, isn’t it?”

“I’m pretty sure this is as bad as it could get.”

How wrong they were.

♡                             ~                             ♡

Hajime watched as the night sky grew darker, and the sprinkles of stars began to show. Their parents still hadn’t shown up, and it had already been three days. With Hajime and Tetsurou’s limited knowledge of herbs (from their mothers journals) they continued putting on the paste and redressing Daichi’s wound, whom had only woken up the day before, and looked much better.

Tetsurou sauntered up to his brother, and they sat in weighted silence for a moment.

“They’re not coming back are they?” Tetsurou asked. They both knew the answer, but neither had dared speak the question that had been weighing on their minds for sometime until now.

“They might,” Hajime lied, “let's wait a while.”

“Well, we need food, and you’re the only one here who knows, or at least is well enough to hunt.” Hajime would have argued with him about how he would know if he hadn’t shirked off his lessons, but remembered his mother’s words.

And he came to a startling conclusion.

“We’re it.”

“What?”

“We’re all that we have. If mama and papa...if they’re really….you know,” Hajime didn’t want to say it, because then it would make it real, and he didn’t want it to be real, “then all I have is you. And Daichi. We’re it. If we fight, there is no one else who will tell us to stop, there is no one else to complain to, no one else to make us say sorry. So we’ve gotta grow up. And, you know what, I really am sorry for everything mean I’ve ever done to you, because you know what? I love you, and you’re my brother, my only family and I don’t want to think about losing you, because then I’d be all alone, and I’d really regret it.” Tetsurou looked at him, golden eyes almost amberlike in the moonlight.

“Thank you. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I know sometimes, I take it too far, but I’m really just teasing. I’m actually really jealous of your strength, and bravery.” Tetsurou said.

“But you’re strong and brave too.”

“I am?”

“Yeah, just because you’re strong and brave in different ways from me, doesn’t mean that you aren’t. It’s just...more subtle. You have this lithe sneakiness that I’ve never been able to achieve and I admire that. In fact, if you tried, you’d probably be a much better hunter than me.”

“I would?”

“Definitely.”

“This isn’t just your way of trying to get out of work, is it?”

“Nah.” They laughed, tails curled comfortingly against each other.

♡                             ~                             ♡

10 years later

“Hey Hajime!” Hajime turned to find his brothers, Daichi and Tetsurou jogging towards him in their human forms.

“Why the hell are you in my garden? I thought the flowers made you sneeze,” Tetsurou joked. Hajime wordlessly held up a white rabbit, pure fur stained with blood. Daichi shook his head.

“You really can’t let anything go, can you Hajime?”

“Nah.” They laughed.

“Anyway, remember what we were talking about?” Tetsurou asked.

“What were we talking about?”

“You know, going to that human town that popped up not too long ago? I was thinking, I we went, we really need second names.”

“Well, I don’t know about ya’ll, but my parents gave me one just before they died. It’s Sawamura.” Daichi said with a shrug. They both looked at him surprise.

“What? We were about the right age. In fact, if you look around in your mother’s journals, I bet she has them written in there.”

“That’s a really good idea, let’s do that now. I don’t know why we didn’t think of that! She wrote everything in those things!” Hajime said, slinging the rabbit over his shoulder.

“You better not drag that in the cave, I just cleaned!” Daichi threatened Hajime. Hajime rolled his eyes and hung the small corpse on hooks outside of their entrance (Put up when Hajime and Tetsurou kept forgetting to not track blood through their home). They walked inside the caves, and Tetsu grabbed the box filled with their mother’s writings from under the desk that Daichi had made a year ago along with a couch and dressers, claiming ‘they needed to stop living like savages dammit and get a few pieces of furniture’. Hajime had made the beds, and Tetsurou the cabinets and the kitchen table. They were shoddy at best, but good enough. They sat down, each grabbing a few, and began to read her tidy scrawl. An hour passed and Tetsurou whooped in excitement. Daichi and Hajime looked up blearily.

“Did you find it?” Hajime asked. Tetsurou smirked.

“Yep!”

“Well? What are they?” Daichi asked.

“Apparently, mine is ‘Kuroo’. Pretty awesome if I say so myself. And it says here that they had just decided on yours. Its ‘Iwaizumi’, if I’m reading this right.”

“Hm. Iwaizumi. I kinda like it.” Hajime spoke aloud thoughtfully. Daichi nodded.

“Well, I like mine better, yours is a mouthful.” Tetsurou teased. Hajime narrowed his eyes at him and he snickered.

“Well, before Hajime kills you, I’d like to see how that rabbit outside tastes. Did you bleed it?” Daichi says, turning to said possible future murderer. Tetsu sneered, and Hajime nodded.

“Well, it’s mine turn to cook tonight since you hunted, Tetsurou, you’re on cleanup duty.”

“What no, can I cook?”

“No.”

“Why nooooot?”

“Oh, stop acting like a petulant child. It’s your turn to clean up.” Hajime butt in. Tetsu huffed and Daichi went to go prepare their meal. Hajime was putting up the journals, when Tetsurou spoke.

“Are you nervous?”

“About what?” Hajime knew exactly what he was talking about, but he didn’t want to admit it.

“About being near humans for the first time in all our lives, of course!”

“Oh. That.”

“Yeah, that.” Silence stole over them, and Hajime struggled to maintain his composure under his brother’s accusatory gaze. Hajime had always found it hard to keep secrets from any of his brothers. Sighing, he gave up.

“Yeah.” Tetsurou let out a noise of triumph.

“Well for what it’s worth I am too.” Hajime looked gratefully at Tetsurou for this admission, vivid green meeting molten gold at last.

“Well, I hate to interrupt this absolutely touching moment, but dinner’s ready.” Daichi cut in. Both large males scurried to the table, and Daichi chuckled.

♡                             ~                             ♡

That morning, Hajime woke up curled onto a rather large ledge cuddling for warmth with his brothers in his dragon form. Stretching, he looked at their shapes illuminated by the weak morning light. Daichi hadn’t changed much since the first time they’d seen him, except for a long wicked looking scar on his underside, and the fact that he was almost a full grown dragon. Tetsurou on the other hand, had quite handsome looking night black scales, with two singular gold scales on the corner of both of his eyes. He had grown into his litheness, and they both looked like figures to be afraid of, if you didn’t know them.

If you didn’t know that Kuroo doted over the little animals and gave them snacks (and sometimes cried when he had to hunt and eat them), loved to garden, and knew how to sew. If you didn’t know that Daichi told old man jokes, made a mean curry, and enjoyed whittling (and whistling whilst he did it). If you didn’t know they were complete dorks like Hajime did.

Hajime, of all three of them, was arguably the biggest and most intimidating. He often wore an angry expression (Tetsurou sometimes teased him that he was grumpy too often when they were kids, and that’s why his face was stuck like that. Daichi always argued that it was because he took on too much responsibility at once at such a young age.) paired with fearsome poisonous green scales, streaked with darker green and gold here and there. But Hajime digressed.

Hajime turned his gaze away and hopped down from the ledge. He shifted into his Human form and pulled on some sweats and a white t-shirt. Well, more like off white, but he tried. He grabbed the left overs from last night from their make-shift refrigerator (A medium sized cubby hole in the wall with a wooden door and covered with cloth. It had been there since before he was born and he wasn’t going to question why everything that went in came out cold) and heated them up for breakfast. Not long after the smell began to permeate through the air, both of his half asleep, half clothed brothers stumbled into the kitchen. Neither of them were very good morning people, but Hajime was okay with that, He liked being the first one up, to make breakfast and greet the silence in the air. It always put him in a good mood to see the sunrise peek over the trees and hear the first of the song birds begin to call. Chuckling at Daichi and Tetsurou’s half-asleep antics (They had tried to sit in the same spot and ended up with Tetsu sitting on Daichi’s lap) he took the food off the cookstove and served it in the wooden bowls Daichi whittled.

"Thanks." Daichi muttered. Tetsurou was only able to muster a grunt. Shaking his head he sat down with his own food and ate. After everyone was finished he put the dishes in the basin and turned to his brothers.

"So today’s the day! Go get ready. And Kuroo please comb your hair, it looks like a bat died in it everytime I see you."

"First off all fucker, how the fuck are you always this happy in the mornings? What demon did you sell your soul to? Because I’d like to know. Second of all, I always comb my hair everyday, so fuck you.”

“Guys, It’s too early for this, just shut up.” Daichi groaned. Hajime just laughed.

“Well, I’m gonna go wash up, you guys better be awake by the time I get back.” They groaned in response and Hajime chuckled.

“You’re inhuman, I swear.” Tetsurou grumbled.

“Well, I am a dragon.” Hajime answered cheekily.

“Shut up Hajime, you know what I meant.”  Hajime grinned and walked off to the waterfall. He took off his clothes and washed himself up, relishing the feeling of the cool water cascade down his skin. Using his shirt to dry off he walked back, feeling extremely refreshed.

When he got back to the cave, Daichi and Tetsu were slightly less asleep, and properly groomed (Well as groomed as Tetsurou’s hair was going to get, it was a lost cause). Tetsurou was wearing some ripped black skinny jeans (he had no idea where he’d gotten those, and he wasn’t going to ask) and plain black t-shirt with his wolf-tooth necklace and their father’s old biker jacket and black boots. Daichi wore a pair of loose jeans with a muscle shirt, a unbuttoned plaid shirt thrown over, and pair of ratty red tennis shoes that barely fit him.

“Hold on a sec.” Hajime told them, “And Tetsurou, quit looking so dark, man.”

“I do not!” He retorted.

“That’s what I told him!” Daichi said gloatingly. Hajime shook his head and went to find proper clothes. He dressed himself in black loose jeans, a beetles t-shirt (His father had questionable taste), some questionably blue tennis shoes, and his favorite cameo jacket. He ran a comb through his hair, and walked out into the kitchen.

“Wow Hajime, you clean up pretty well when you’re not wearing goddamn sweats,” Kuroo deadpanned.

“And somehow, you’re looking more emo than when I went into the room,” Hajime retorted with a snort.

“It’s the eyeliner he found,” Daichi explained. Hajime sighed and decided he wasn’t going to comment on it. He could wear whatever the hell he wanted. He didn’t care.

“Okay, ground rules, ya’ll. We need to call each other by our last names outside of our territory, obviously. And try not to do anything too weird while we’re around the humans. We don’t know their customs yet, so be careful. Now we’re going to look around at the shops ma mentioned in her journals, and we need new shoes and clothes obviously, since Kuroo is forced into wearing our mother’s clothes because nothing else fits him,” Hajime said, ignoring Tetsurou’s indignant huff,”Am I missing anything?”

“No, I think that’s it,” Daichi said.

“Good. Let’s go.”

♡                             ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

Iwaizumi shielded his eyes from the afternoon light beating on him.  

“How much Further!” Kuroo whined.

“We’re here,” Iwaizumi sighed.

“Oh thank the Gods,” Daichi said. They hiked to a small shopping center and looked around in confusion.

“How much money do you have?” Daichi asked.

“About 34 thousand yen,” Iwaizumi answered briskly.

“So where do we start?” Kuroo asked.

“Hell if I know,” Iwaizumi answered. They began to wander around aimlessly, unsure where to go.

“Uhm, excuse me?” said an unfamiliar voice behind them. All three turned to look at the owner of the voice. He was a tall brunette, with chocolate brown eyes, milky white skin, and smelled of vanilla and a circtius scent; he was wearing some white skinny jeans, a very long, light green sweater, some green tennis shoes (with an odd large-headed green character on them), glasses, and an unreadable expression. Next to him were two others. The one on the left was a silvery-gray blonde, with dimples, a very kind approachable smile, and smelled of cinnamon and marshmallows; he was wearing yellow capri with a pink flower pattern, a white undershirt, a green cardigan, some red tennis shoes, and a silver watch. The one on the right had two-toned hair. The very roots of it were black, but the rest was a fine yellow, sharp eyes glued to the strange black rectangle he was currently tapping at, and smelled of apples and cotton; he was wearing black skinny jeans and a read hoodie with the words ‘all I need to be happy is cats and video games’ (whatever those were) stamped across the front, and red tennis shoes. Another thing, was they all noticeably gave off strong aura’s.

“Yes?” Iwaizumi answered politely.

“You guys look rather lost, you’re not from around here are you?” Asked the brunette. All three dragons exchanged a look. They laughed.

“What gave it away? The aimless walking around, or the looks of almost painful confusion?” Daichi said.

“Both!” the silvery-blonde chirped.

“Well, I’m Oikawa Tooru, nice to meet you!” said the brunette, “these are my brothers Sugawara Koushi and Kenma Kozume.” He gestured to the respective people. Kenma barely looked up long enough to acknowledge them.

“Nice to meet you too!” Kuroo said.

“Okay, so what are you guys looking for? We know this town pretty well, and we could probably help you out.” Suga asked.

“Well, we were hoping to find a shop for shoes and clothes.” Iwaizumi answered.

“Ah! Then you came to the right man! What kinda clothes are looking for?” asked Oikawa. All three of the dragons regarded him blankly.

“There’s different kinds?” Daichi asked

“Cheap I guess,” Iwaizumi shrugged.

“Black,” Kuroo deadpanned. The three humans stared at them.

“Jeez, where did you guys grow up, the forest?” Oikawa joked.

“Yes,” all three of them said in unision.

“We’ve...well, never exactly been here before….or like outside of it at all really,” Iwaizumi said, one hand running through his hair. Damn this heat.

“Wow, seriously?” asked Oikawa. They nodded.

“Okay, I think we should divide and conquer,” Suga told Oikawa, “I’ll take Mr.Lumberjack to the thrift on seventh, Kenma will take Bedhair to Hot Top on Sakura street, and you take Grumpypants to Shoe Carnival on ninth.”

“My name is Kuroo!” said Kuroo indignantly.

“Sounds like plan. We can meet up at the coffee shop on Mikasa road. Kenma, you okay with that?” Oikawa ignored him.

“...I guess.” Kenma sighed.

“Cool, then let’s go.” Oikawa clapped his hands. Iwaizumi split the money, and they nervously left each other. When he saw Oikawa giving him a raised eyebrow, he smiled sheepishly.

“We haven’t been apart since we were thirteen.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” The air was kind of awkward and Iwaizumi didn’t know what to say until Oikawa spoke up.

“So what’s your name?” Iwaizumi started.

“I’m sorry, that was really rude of me. It’s Iwaizumi.”

“Iwaizumi...that’s kind of a mouthful. I’m gonna call you Iwa-chan! It’s much cuter!”

“I’m not cute!”

“Iwa-chan is totally cute!”

“Fine, Crappykawa. ”

“Geh! That’s mean Iwa-chan!”

“God, you whine more than Kuroo. I didn’t think that was possible.” Oikawa pouted a little and went silent. They walked along for a little while until Okawa spoke up again.

“We’re here!” Oikawa smiled at him. It was large, and a little fake. Iwaizumi frowned.

“What?”

“Don’t smile if you don’t want to dumbass.”

“Geh! Mean Iwa-chan!”

“Whatever Bakakawa.” Oikawa huffed and opened the door for Iwaizumi. He nodded his thanks and walked into the entryway. His first impression was cold. His second was that is a lot of shoes.

“You really did grow up in the forest, didn’t you?” Oikawa asked, seeing Iwaizumi’s shocked expression.

“Didn’t I already tell you that?”

“Yes, but it’s very hard to believe.”

“Why is it goddamn cold in here?”

“Ha. That’s the air conditioning.”

“What the hell is air conditioning?”

“Something that makes rooms cold.”

“Why would you want that?”

“Because it gets hot outside.”

“That’s weird.” Oikawa just laughed and led him to a section of shoes.

“So this is the men’s section, chose what you want.” Iwaizumi pursed his lips.

“What are the sizes for?”

“Oh, right.” Oikawa led him to a drawing of feet on the floor (humans were so weird) and measured his feet. He told him his size was ten, and he could only get shoes in that size.  Iwaizumi shrugged and walked around (Oikawa remarked that he looked like a kid in a candy store. He didn’t know what candy was, but he didn’t appreciate being called a kid. He told him to shut up.) and found two pairs of shoes in his size that liked. One was a pair of dark green high tops, and the other a sturdy pair of brown work boots. Oikawa looked disapprovingly at the boots, but he seems to like the sneakers. They rung him up, he paid (holy shit that was expensive), and they left. They got to the thrift store just as Sugawara (who told him to call him Suga) and Daichi were leaving. Daichi and Iwaizumi nodded at each other in greeting and went their separate ways.

When they walked into the store, and it was just as cold, if not colder than the last store. Iwaizumi’s mouth dropped when he saw how much clothes were everywhere. Oikawa laughed again. They found his size again (he was apparently a large) and found several shirts, pairs of jeans, briefs (which had been slightly embarrassing, he refused to admit he blushed), a couple jackets, a scarf that matched his eyes (for style Iwa-chan!), and some socks. They rung him up again (why was all this shit so expensive?) and left the store for the ‘coffee’ shop.

“What’s coffee?” asked Iwaizumi. Oikawa looked at him with wide eyes.

“You’re joking me.”

“Unfortunately not.”

“Holy fuck we need to get this guy some coffee! How the hell do you wake up in the mornings?”

“Uhm by getting out of bed, shoving Kuroo’s foot out of the way, and making my brothers breakfast.”

“Bullshit. There’s no way without coffee. I can’t function in the morning without my coffee.”

“My brothers can’t function at all. I have to lure them with food.” Oikawa looked at him like he had sprouted a tail (he had to check in a passing window just in case -no, no tail. Just Oikawa being Oikawa). When they arrived at the coffee place, Oikawa ordered a black coffee with sugar and cream on the side, and a chocolate sprinkled iced frappuccino (whatever that was). They sat down and Iwaizumi sipped the drink. It was scalding hot. Which did not feel nice on his human tongue. Oikawa laughed at him and told him to blow on it. He waited for five minutes and looked up to see Kuroo and Kenma walking up to the table. Kuroo had his own coffee, and Kenma had a small yellow thing wrapped in a crinkly white thing that smelled like artificial apples. They sat down across from them.

“Don’t drink it immediately. Wait.” Iwaizumi advised Kuroo.

“Why?”

“Because it’s really hot. Too hot. It hurt.”

“Oh.” After that Iwaizumi was able to drink without burning himself, and rather enjoyed the drink. It came accompanied with a burst of energy and a bitter taste. Iwaizumi, who never had a taste for sweet things, drank the whole thing as it was, much to Oikawa’s dismay.  After he had finished his drink, and Kuroo was getting started on his (half cream, one packet of sugar, not too much, Iwaizumi approved) Daichi and Suga showed up. After they got their drinks, they slid in next to Kuroo and Kenma.

“So! How did it go?” Kuroo asked.

“Pretty good I think, I got my money’s worth.” Iwaizumi said.

“Same here!” Daichi said.

“Well, I got some eyeliner! My own eyeliner! How cool is that?” Kuroo exclaimed giddily,  “I also got a few pairs of black jeans (Skinny and loose), a pair of blue, a pair of red, some sock and underwear, a few t-shirts that Kenma told me we’re a must have, a pack muscle shirts, because try as I fucking might, I cannot for the life of me fit into ya’lls, and if you wear them and stretch them out I will murder you, a pair of red converse, a pair of black high tops, and some black combat boots. Oh! And I wanna stop by the craft store Kenma pointed out, I lost the last of my sewing needles.”

“That’s fine.” Iwaizumi says, licking the dregs off coffee from the back of his spoon, “What about you?”

“Oh, I got a few muscle shirts and sweat pants, and I got extra, because I knew you’d forget and we can share, (‘Thanks’ ‘No problem’) Some blue jeans, some shirts, some sunglasses, for style apparently (Oikawa looked approvingly in Suga’s direction and Suga smirked back), some socks, some underwear, a brown leather jacket because you guys have your signature jackets and I wanted one, a fedora-”

“A what now?” Kuroo asked.

“It’s a type of hat.” Kenma answered (to everybody else’s surprise).

“Oh. Continue.”

“As I was saying, a fedora to match the jacket, and about five pairs of shoes.”

“Sweet mother of dragons! Why the hell so much?” Iwaizumi asked.

“I have found my calling!” Daichi exclaimed, eyes shining, “Shoes!”

“Great Stars above.” Iwaizumi said tiredly. Everyone else snickered.

“Yes, yes! I got a pair of black faux leather combat boots from Sketchers, some black tennis shoes from Nike, brown work boots from nike, blue sneakers from Converse, and red tennis shoes from Adidas!”

“You’re getting a job.” Iwaizumi told him.

“Okay.” Daichi shrugged.

“Damn! I’m jealous! I want my calling!” Kuroo said.

“Don’t whine Kuroo.” Iwaizumi said. Kuroo huffed.

“What’s a calling?” Oikawa asked.

“Uhm, a calling is something where you’ve found the thing you want to ho-collect. Yeah. Collect.”

“Okay…” Oikawa said suspiciously.

“Hey isn’t the flea market open right now? We could check that out on the way to the craft store!” Suga suggested.

“Flea? Aren’t fleas bad?” Daichi chimed in.

“No, a flea market is somewhere a lot of people gather to sell stuff.”

“Oh.” said Iwaizumi.

“Why don’t we go now?”

“Sounds good to me,” Kuroo said shrugging. They proceeded to leave the coffee shop and walk down the street towards the flea market. When they reached their destination, they were assaulted with the hustle and bustle of people, sights, sounds, and people that nearly had them overwhelmed.

“You guys okay?” Oikawa asked.

“Yeah, just a lot to process.” Daichi gasped out. Iwaizumi was slowly getting his bearings, but Kuroo was frozen where he stood.

“I’m going to take Kuro to the craft store,” said Kenma and Iwaizumi jumped (he was not used to the smaller man talking). After Kenma had dragged Kuroo away, Oikawa and Suga looked like they wished to do the same. But after Iwaizumi had gotten over the shock of it all, he found himself curious.

“I want to see if I can find some shoes for cheap,” Daichi says.

“Meet back here when we’re done?” Iwaizumi asked. Daichi nodded and trotted away, a worried looking Suga trailing him. Oikawa search Iwaizumi’s face for any lingering fear, but he merely saw curiosity, excitement, and apprehension. Iwaizumi headed towards the crowd, and Oikawa followed suit. Looking around Iwaizumi drank in the sights and smells. That’s when he saw it. Sitting inconspicuously on a vendor's stall, was a small choker, with a turquoise diamond hanging from a thick velvet ribbon that was black on one side and white on the other. It...kind of reminded him of Oikawa. Immediately, Iwaizumi surged forward and eagerly asked if it was for sale. It was, and it took all of Oikawa’s bargaining power and the rest of his money so that he could buy it. He couldn’t be happier in that moment. He giddily strode towards the place where they promised they would meet with Daichi and Suga. He saw Oikawa looking at him strangely out of the corner of his eye.

“What?” Iwaizumi asked. Oikawa hummed.

“Nothing. I was just wondering why you look so happy.”

“I’ve found my the first piece of my calling, what isn’t there to be happy about?”

“So what’s your calling?”

“Jewelry.”

“Hm.” They met back with a very happy Daichi and Suga (Daichi found two pairs of vintage slacks, one black one brown, and Suga had found some black and white feather patterned suspenders and a very nice vintage lamp) and walk the rest of the way to the craft store.

“Oh my Stars, guys! Guess what!” Kuroo exclaimed gleefully.

“You found your calling?” Iwaizumi guessed.

“Yeah, how’d you guess?” Kuroo asked.

“Every single one of us seems to be finding it today, it makes sense.” Iwaizumi said.

“Plus, only you would find your calling at a craft store.” Daichi said.

“True,” Kuroo smirked. He held up a bundle of gold, iridescent cloth.

“My calling, is fabric!” He said in the most dramatic voice he could muster.

“I like you!” Oikawa laughs. Iwaizumi feels a twinge of irritation.

“So anyway, what’s yours?” Kuroo asked. Iwaizumi almost didn’t show him, but then reminded himself there was nothing to be irritated about. He carefully pulled the piece from his pocket, unfolded it from the cloth, and held it out. They all inspected it (except Oikawa who had already seen it, and Kenma, who was engrossed in the black rectangle again).

“Wow. Very nice eye. I love the fabric on it.” Kuroo says approvingly.

“Thanks.” Iwaizumi said, folding it back up and putting it into his pocket.

“Hey Sawamura?” asked Kuroo.

“Yeah?” Daichi said.

“I never asked but what pair was your first calling piece?”

“Oh, the combat boots.”

“Nice, nice.”

“Well it’s getting dark, and we better head home in time for dinner! Uhm, you probably don’t know what a phone is, so here is our address instead,” Oikawa said, handing Iwaizumi a slip of something white with numbers and a street name on it, “If you are ever lost or need help, just go there. Or just drop in because you feel like it, we don’t mind!”

Iwaizumi nodded and slipped it into his jacket pocket.

“Cool, see ya around hopefully!” Oikawa sung.

“Bye guys!” Suga chirped. Kenma silently nodded in their direction. The three humans began to walk away, the dragons heard a snippet of their conversation.

“-Omg was it just me, or was that kind of like a date?”

“I know right! It totally felt like one! They were so cute!”

“Kuro was nice.”

“See even Kenma agrees-”

All three brothers cheeks grew red and they hurried towards home, tired from the day’s events.

♡                             ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

“Ugh!” said Tetsurou, setting his things down on the kitchen table with a flourish, “As much as I like shopping for clothes, right now I can’t help but want them off .”

“You said it!” Daichi groaned, dropping his things by the entrance.

“I thought it was fun.” Hajime said, shrugging.

“It was fun, yeah, just exhausting.” Tetsu groaned into the table. Hajime shook his head.

“Well, I’m fucking starving. Whose turn is it to hunt?” Hajime asked, shoving Tetsu’s stuff over so he could set all of his things down.

“Mine, ‘cause I cleaned up yesterday,” Tetsu said through his arms,” Gimme a minute, I’m tired.”

“If we give you a minute, you’ll fall asleep, and I’m dead tired dammit, I don’t wanna do it!” Daichi said. Hajime sighed.

“Okay, you know what, don’t worry about it, ya’ll are exhausted, I’ll do it.” Hajime says tiredly.

“But-” Daichi begins. Hajime gives him a look. Daichi grumbles.

“Thanks,” Tetsu says softly, betraying how truly tired he is.

“No problem,” says Hajime, patting Tetsu’s head on his way out. He jogs a ways away through the forest, and stops when he comes upon a clearing. A good place for rabbits. Maybe the occasional deer. Hajime was not in the mood to fish. He could feel the exhaustion settle in his bones, and his legs crack as he crouched. He knew he would have to make the chase short if he was to get anything at all. A movement to the southwest caught his attention, and he honed in on the smell. A small doe. Perfect. Watching her come closer, he waiting for the right moment to strike. She steadily moved in his direction, brown coat dappled with the moonlight that filtered through the trees. When she was five feet away, Hajime struck. He leaped out and grabbed her neck, snapping it in one clean stroke. Pulling his knife out of his back pocket, he slit her throat and bled her out. Throwing the corpse over his shoulder, he went back the way he came. When he got home, Tetsurou was at the stove, mending to some herbs boiling in water, and Daichi was nowhere to be seen.

“I would’ve done it,” Hajime tells Tetsu.

“I know,” he says shaking his head and reaching for the deer. He brings it outside and makes quick work of gutting and cleaning it. He puts the pelt in the tanning area for Hajime in the morning. He walks back to the stove, and slices long strips of meat of the bones and puts them in the water.

“Go clean up, this will be ready in a minute,” Tetsurou says. Hajime nods gratefully and excuses himself to the waterfall. He washes himself and dries with his t-shirt. They really need to get some towels. They used to have some, but Tetsurou ruined them because he got an odd sticky sap-like substance on them that refused to come out. Hajime is not even sure what happened there, and to be honest he’s a little afraid to ask. He walks back to find his brothers seated at the table, waiting for him to eat, the exhaustion evident in their stooped bodies.

“Lemme go put some clothes on,” he says, walking to the back room because he didn’t see the bags anywhere in their kitchen.

“The sweats and muscle shirts are in the green bag,” Daichi calls after him, and he grunts his thanks. After putting on some clothes, he joins his brothers, and they all wolf down their food, eager to sleep.

“Hey guys, I’m not in the mood to cuddle, Imma go sleep in my bed,” Tetsu mutters sleepily. Daichi and Hajime give him non-committal nods. They all drag themselves to their respective bedrooms, and fall asleep.

♡                             ~                             ♡

“Daichi, can you do me a favor?” asked Hajime, tail brushing across the floor. Daichi looks up expectantly.

“I was wondering, since we have those empty back caves we could use those for our collections, and I needed you to make some lockable display cases.” Hajime says.

“Well, I’d need some really good glass, and some time to devise a wooden lock. How many caves are there?” he asked. Hajime tilted his head in thought.

“Six, I think.”

“Perfect. That’s two for each of us, if Tetsu isn’t being a greedy bitch.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I mean...well you know what I meant.” Hajime said. Daichi snorted.

“You’re so awkward. Anyway, you up for making the glass? I have some ideas for storage units too. And up by the ravine, I saw a really nice sized birch tree that was struck down by the lighting a few days ago,” said Daichi absent-mindedly, driving his talons into the leg of their new living room table.

“Yeah, I can do the glass, it’ll just take me awhile. And birch sounds great. I like birch. It smells good. But are you sure they’ll be enough?” Hajime asked.

“Stars no, that’ll only be good enough for about three display cases, if you want me to make them last. I’m using the birch for you, because you don’t like the smell of maple sap.”

“So who’s getting the maple?”

“Me, because if there was any trace of sap left on the bark it would ruin Tetsu’s fabric.”

“Oh. What about your shoes?”

“They’ll be fine if I make cupboards without doors to air them out, and make sure it’s clean before I use it. Damn, if I’m not glad it isn’t sap season.” Daichi said. Hajime laughed.

“Thanks by the way.”

“No problem.”

“So when do you think we should start getting jobs, because I don’t want to tap into dad’s money just yet.”

“As soon as we finish setting up the back rooms, I’m going to need a lot of help. I’m almost done with this table, when I finish I’ll take you to that birch, and a couple other trees I want you to take down. Can you do it in human form? The job can’t be done sloppily, or it’ll make it harder for me.”

“That’s fine. When do you think you’re gonna finish?”

“Give me ten minutes. Go check up on Tetsu, he’s been quiet for too long.”

“Kay.” Hajime turns and lumbers away, towards the garden to check if Tetsurou is there. When he doesn’t see him, he walks into the caves and makes a beeline for the library. He finds his brother buried in a pile of books.

“So that’s why you’re so quiet. Research for the garden?” Hajime asks. Tetsurou looks up and it takes him a moment to process what he said.

“Yeah. The Cat-Eyes are acting up, and I couldn’t find anything in mom’s journals.” He answers, stretching so his wings extend a little.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“They aren’t shining in the dark like they usually do. I think they’re sick and I don’t know why!” Tetsurou groaned in frustration.

“Have you tried checking the roots? Something similar was happening last time to the weeping climbers, and it was some sort of root fungus.”

“That’s genius! Why didn’t I think of it?” Tetsu cried, and shot pass Hajime, heading to the garden. Hajime shook his head.

“He’s lucky I listen to him rant about that damn garden.” he muttered, and re-joined Daichi as he was putting the finishing touches on the table.

“Hey!” Daichi called,” I’m just about done with this, we can go do that now if you want to.”

“Yeah just let me shift and get some clothes on.”

“I should probably do that too, actually.” Daichi said, following Hajime back inside. They shifted and put some sweats and t-shirts on. Leaving, they walked through the forest, Daichi leading.

“Here.” Daichi said, pointing. There, on it’s side, was a large beautiful white birch tree, with blackened ends. Hajime immediately loved it.

“If you cut the base down, I can make three display cases and a doorless cupboard,” Daichi said, inspecting the base. Hajime nodded.

“Can I request a design?” Hajime asked.

“Go for it.”

“I want trees on the sides, with braided branches stretching to everything else.”

“I like it. It’ll take me awhile, because it’ll be complicated, but I can make it work. Do you want all of them like that?”

“Yeah.” Hajime answered. Daichi nodded, and they left the grounded birch to point out other birches good for whatever they planned to use them for. They did the same for Daichi’s maple, and decided on Oak for Tetsu. Daichi patted his back.

“Let’s get this done! Do you want me to grab Tetsu to help us out?” Daichi asked.

“Yeah, that would be best. And don’t forget the axes from the shed. I’m gonna go scout out that sand patch at the mouth of the river, to see if it’s good enough for making glass.”

“Sounds like a plan. Meet at the fallen birch in ten?” Daichi said. Hajime nodded. They parted, and Hajime walked a little ways to the river and crouched to inspect the sand there. It was white, which was better for clear glass, and cleaner than he expected. He found it satisfactory, and went back to the birch to report his findings. When he got there, Tetsu was in his human form, with shorts and a t-shirt, and an axe slung over his shoulder. Daichi was inspecting the tree, his axe on the ground next to him. Tetsurou pointed to an axe leaned against a tree, and Hajime picked it up.

“So the sand by the river mouth is pretty good, I think I’ll use that. How many sheets do you need, and how big do you want them?” asked Hajime.

“Mmmm, I think two by three will be fine for the little ones. For the big ones, three by seven would be good? I’ll be making about ten little cases and one big one for each of the rooms, so sixty three by twos and six seven by threes?” Daichi said, frowning as he mentally measured. Hajime nodded.

“Me and Tetsu will do that later.” Hajime says.

“I don’t think we should do it by moonlight, ‘because that messes with the quality, so let's just do it tomorrow afternoon, the light will be pretty good.” Tetsurou said.

“Good thinking. We’ll do it tomorrow then.” Hajime says.

“Sounds like a plan! Let’s get chopping!” Daichi says. They all scatter to the marked tree and the sound of chops fills the air until late afternoon. They stop to pull the chopped trees to a spot outside of the cave. Daichi stops to begin on the cabinets, and Hajime and Tetsurou finish getting everything by nightfall. On their way back, Tetsu catches a goose by amount of sheer luck. When they get home, they find Daichi at work chopping the wood into the appropriate amount for each cabinet. They make him take a break, and Hajime cooks the goose. Convincing Daichi that it is not a good idea to work through the night, they shift into their dragon forms and curl on the ledge next to each other.

♡                             ~                             ♡

The next morning, Hajime was the first to wake up as usual. He went out and found some quail eggs for a hearty breakfast, and the smell roused his brothers from the dead.

“Damn, I could really go for some of that coffee crap right about now,” Tetsu says, rubbing his face.

“Oikawa told me you could make it at home, so when we go, we’ll get you some coffee, how does that sound?” Hajime responded.

“Sounds great,” Tetsu says. Daichi gives a thumbs up from his face down position on the kitchen table.

“Alright, so we have a lot to do today. I’m going to start off the morning by hunting that buck I saw a couple of days ago, and slow roast it for dinner. Tetsurou, check on those Cat-Eyes in the garden, and then try to help out Daichi wherever he needs it. At sunhigh, meet me at the mouth of the river with the burlap sacks I know you have in your shed. Then we’ll walk to the fire-cave and make some glass,” Hajime says, “Any objections?” When he was met with no opposition (although that may have been due to the earliness of the morning) he started out to hunt for the buck he saw. After successfully tracking, killing, and bleeding out his kill he walks back and cleans and skins his catch. As a second thought, he tends to the hides and puts them out for the sun to tan them. After blowing a small fire into existence, he puts the catch over the fire pit on a spit, and covers it in cooking herbs. Looking up, Hajime notices it’s almost sunhigh and he washes the blood from his hands. He jogs to the river mouth and waits for Tetsurou to show up.

“Yo!” Tetsu greets him, and Hajime nods at him in turn,” Let’s get this done, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Hajime agrees. They fill five whole burlap sacks with the bleached white sand and head to the fire-cave. Upon reaching the cave, they step out of their clothes and shift into their dragon forms. If Hajime was to describe how a shift feels, he would of said fire . But not in a bad way. A spine tingling sensation much like fire licks up his spine and he can feel a twinge of discomfort as his bones elongate and his skin harden. He would even dare say the warmth of it was pleasant. They step into the entrance, greeted with black ash burn marks sporadically placed, and an open ceiling to let light filter through.  Hajime grabs the sacks and dumps out the sand into the middle of the room.

“I’ll start on the three by sevens, you do the two by threes,” Tetsurou says. Hajime agrees with a flick of his tail. He grabs the rock molders for a two by three, and dumps sand in it. He cleans any twigs he sees in it, and removes any parts where there are large patches of dirt. Then, gathering fire in his belly, he blows onto the mold. The sand slowly turns molten, and he shapes it with his bare claws, and adds more sand. He keeps layering it until he’s satisfied, and lets it cool just enough to where he can take it out. He dumps it into the spring pool that sits in the back of the cave. He holds it up to the light and is satisfied when he sees light filter through it showing minimal air bubbles and trapped dirt. He sets it aside and repeats the process until he’s finished. He goes over to help Tetsurou, and when the last panel has cooled they carefully pick them up in their talons and head home. When they get home, Daichi is in dragon form as well, working on the shape of the second birch wood display.

“Hey,” Daichi greets without looking up,” You can put the next to the woodpile. I’m almost done with this. When I finish with the shape, I’ll go to the design. Tetsurou, you got any requests? Hajime’s already put in his.”

“Uhm, I was thinking a sort of celtic theme-” Tetsurou began, but Hajime didn’t stay to hear the rest and walked off to check on the slow roast. He turned it, and added more herbs, and then called to his brothers.

“We should probably choose who gets what room. I was thinking we could draw rocks,” Hajime says.

“Because Tetsu’s a greedy bitch?” asked Daichi.

“Exactly.” Hajime says.

“You guys always gain up on me!” Tetsurou whines. Daichi and Hajime exchanged a grin and Daichi found three similar sized, but different colored rocks. He grabbed his fedora from inside, and put them in there.

“Okay, red goes first, blue second, and brown last,” Hajime says,” Fair?” After a nod from his brothers, Hajime reaches inside the hat and grabs a rock without looking. Blue. Pretty good. Tetsurou goes next, drawing brown with a whine. Daichi shrugs.

“I guess that leaves red for me!” he grins.

“I was thinking that we could pick one room and after everyone picks one, we could pick the second, to make it more fair.” Hajime said.

“That’s cool,” Daichi says.

“How many of them have sunlight?” asked Tetsu.

“Well, two of them have a lot of light, and one of them has sort of light on one side of the room and not the other. The other ones are sort of the same light-wise. They are kind of dim. But they’re all different shapes and sizes,” Hajime answers. Tetsurou nods. They make their way to the back, and Daichi picks the biggest, most well lighted room, and the largest dim one. Hajime chooses the second biggest, most well lighted room, and the second largest dim one. Tetsurou picks the half lighted one and the smallest dim one.

“You can put mirrors on the lighted side of that room, and it’ll reflect to the whole room.” Hajime tells Tetsu. He seems noticeably happier at this suggestion. The boys go back to work, and when night begins to fall, they gather and eat dinner, work by fire for a few hours, then fall back on the ledge.

♡                               ~                             ♡

A few days later.

Hajime helped Tetsurou hang up the last of the wall of mirrors, marking a job well done. Daichi claps his hands together.

“Well, that’s it then!” He says. Tetsurou whoops and Hajime grins. All six rooms had been decked with a big display case for each room and ten small ones. Shelves had been put above the display cases in each of the rooms with extra wood, and each room and been cleaned until they sparkled.

“We need to find to things to decorate with obviously,” Tetsurou says.

“Maybe like some carpets?” Hajime suggests. Tetsurou nods.

“Oh! Maybe a couple of vases of flowers?” Daichi says,

“Nice, nice!” Tetsu says encouragingly.

“I could take a bunch of crystals from the river bang and string them up. And maybe make a chandelier to reflect more light. I think it would look good next to jewelry, especially if I polished it,” Hajime thinks aloud.

“It could almost be considered jewelry itself!” Daichi says.

“Totally! These are all great ideas!” Tetsu agrees. They all sit thoughtfully when Tetsurou sucks in a breath.

“I could put a canopy of cloth up!” Tetsu says, “Along with a couple of mannequins!”

“That’s a really good idea!” Hajime says.

“Oh, I could spread a world map on one wall. Because shoes are kind of like a symbol of traveling?” Daichi says.

“Definitely,” Tetsu and Hajime agree in unison.

“We should probably head for town tomorrow to look for jobs,” Daichi says.

“Yeah,” Hajime agrees,” We could visit Oikawa, Suga, and Kenma again and they could help us look?”

“I’d love to see Kenma again!” Tetsu beams.

“Me too, I’d like to see Suga,” Daichi says. Hajime nods.

“Then I guess it decided then” he says, ignoring the bloom of happiness in his chest at the thought of seeing a certain beautiful brunette.

♡                               ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

“Help me decide what to wear,” Hajime says, smacking Tetsurou awake with a pillow. Tetsurou starts and falls off the bed. Hajime laughs. Tetsu grumbles at him.

“You get up now nicely, and help me, i’ll get you some coffee with the last of the money,” Hajime bargains. On the word ‘coffee’ Tetsu shoots up.

“Hell yeah! I’m up!” Tetsurou says. Hajime grins.

“Why are you trying so hard anyway?” asks Tetsu.

“Nobody will employ me if I look like I rolled out of bed,” Hajime says, cheeks heating up despite his will to swallow his embarrassment. He turns away to hide it, but Tetsurou sees anyway.

“Is it for the job,” Tetsurou says with a shit-eating grin,” or is it for a certain pretty brunette ?” Hajime scoffs, but his blush gives him away.

“I knew it!”

“Sh-shut up!”

“You don’t have to act so ashamed.”

“I’m not ashamed.”

“Then what are you?”

“...Scared.”

“...Let me let you in on something.”

“What?”

“I am too.” Tetsurou says, eyes gleaming with an unnamable emotion. Hajime looks at his brother for a moment, then turns away, beckoning for Tetsu to follow him. Tetsu complies without a word. They look through the clothes he got and Tetsurou whistles.

“What?” asked Hajime.

“Nothing, it’s just that Oikawa has some serious taste .” Tetsurou says picking up the green scarf. He sifts through the rest of his clothes, and picks out a white T-shirt that hugged his arms nicely, a nice leather black jacket, the green scarf, a pair of well fitting black jeans, and his green high tops. Nodding approvingly when Hajime puts on his choices, he walks out of the door talking to Hajime over his shoulder.

“I’m gonna go get Dai up, and get ready. Can you make breakfast?”

“Don’t I always?” Hajime shoots back. Tetsu chuckles. Hajime goes to the kitchen, fixes a quick, on-the-go breakfast consisting of deer jerky, when Tetsurou and Daichi walk into the kitchen, ready to go.

“Dressed to impress,” Hajime whistles. Tetsurou was wearing a pair of better fitting black skinny jeans, a red t-shirt that said ‘check meow-out’ (he wasn’t going to ask), red converse, and they’re father’s black leather jacket. Daichi was wearing his brown leather jacket, a white shirt a lot like Hajime’s own, the brown leather fedora, well-fitted blue jeans, his black combat boots, and mirrored sunglasses.

“I could say the same for yourself,” Daichi says, eyebrow quirking. Hajime grins.

“Now let’s go, I was promised coffee,” Tetsurou says. They follow him out without another word.

♡                               ~                             ♡

“Uhm, excuse me miss? Could you point us to this address?” asked Daichi. The woman nodded and gave them detailed instructions, and then pulled her child away from the three slightly odd strangers.

“Well that was nice,” says Iwaizumi. Kuroo snorted.

“If she gave us instructions to the right place. She looked a little sketchy to be honest.”

“ We look a little sketchy Kuroo. I wouldn’t blame the poor woman.” says Daichi. They continued down the path the woman told them to go on, holding hot cups of coffee in hand. They reached a small house a ways away from everything else, and hesitated.

“Are you sure this is it?” asked Iwaizumi.

“That’s what it says on the slip of paper Oikawa gave you.” Daichi says.

“I mean, I don’t know-” Iwaizumi starts, but Kuroo interrupts.

“I’m going for it.” He jogs up to the door and raises a hand to knock when suddenly the door swings open. A small male with spiked up hair, and a tuft of red in the front, wearing blue patterned pants and a very large sweater that was probably not his stood before them, smelled of oranges and maple syrup, and brown eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Who are you?” he asked, voice still rough with sleep.

“Uhm-” Kuroo starts, but Iwaizumi cuts him off.

“We were wondering if Oikawa, Suga, or Kenma was home,” he said politely. The small man blinked at him.

“Oi! Tooru! Someone’s at the door for ya!” he shouts into the house. They hear a faint coming! From somewhere inside, and Oikawa shows himself in the entryway, and gasps when he sees them. Or more specifically, Iwaizumi.

“Iwa-chan!” he squeals,” Come inside, come inside we’ve just finished breakfast and everyone has more or less clothes on!” He ushers them inside (ignoring Kuroo’s ‘why is that a concern?’) and leads them to what seems to be a kitchen with five very sleepy people sitting at the table.

“Kiyoko isn’t here today, she’s sleeping over at her girlfriends today! And Akaashi moved in with his boyfriend about a week ago! But everyone else is here! Mom is still asleep, you can meet her later, but over there is Azumane Asahi, but he likes to be called Asahi,” Oikawa says, pointing to a long-haired, broad shouldered man who looked up at the sound of his name, then squeaked when he noticed three pairs of eyes looking at him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he wore some low hanging sweats, and he smelled of baked goods and lemons.

“That’s Yamaguchi Tadashi, his boyfriend is Tsukishima Kei, he’s in the shower,” Oikawa said, pointing to the man in front of Asahi. He was smaller in stature, but not as small as, let’s say, Kenma. He had dark, green tinted hair, had a splash of stars across his face, and smelled of wildberries and peppermint. He wore a black-shirt that read Pierce the Veil, although Hajime isn’t sure what a veil is or why you would want to pierce it, black loose-hanging bottoms, and metal decorating his ears. Hajime eyed them, something told him it was jewelry, and he had to get some for his hoard.

“And that’s Hinata Shouyou! His boyfriend Kageyama Tobio isn’t here today!” Oikawa said, pointing to a small fire-headed person with his head in Yamaguchi’s lap. He sat up when he heard his name, and smiled brightly. His smile could have rivaled Oikawa’s chipperness. He had brightly lit warm brown eyes, and smelled like sea-salt and daisies. He was wearing a blue muscle shirt, with boxers underneath.

“And of course you know Suga and Kenma,” Oikawa finished, looking through the cupboards,” Did you already eat?”

“Yes thank you,” Iwaizumi answered.

“And I’m Nishinoya Yuu!” said the small spiky-haired man they met at the door,” Asahi’s boyfriend! You can call me Noya!”

“Ah, yes how could we forget about you, Noya?” Suga chuckled. Asahi huffed when Noya lept onto his lap.

“I have no idea!” he answered indignantly.

“Oh my, why is it so noisy down here?” said a female voice. Hajime turned around. There stood a woman with tied up black hair, brown eyes, crow’s feet, and a flowered nightgown. She smelled of pansies and spring water. Most noticeably was her extremely strong aura. Hajime immediately knew this woman wasn’t human. She reeked of magic.

“Oh! Mother! I’m sorry were we too loud?” Yamaguchi asks worriedly.

“It’s fine dear,” she says, but continues and further confirms Hajime’s suspicions,” But why are there three full-grown dragons in my kitchen?” Kuroo and Daichi seemed surprised, but Hajime sort of expected it. He always had been rather sensitive to magic from other organisms since a young age.

“I knew it!” muttered Oikawa. Hajime chuckled.

“I’m sorry ma’am, we came because we’re trying to get bearings and connections, and we befriended your sons a few days ago, so we came to ask them to show us around,” Daichi explains. The woman nods.

“Well I’m Maho, it’s very nice to meet you. It’s good luck to be friends with one dragon, nevermind three! You’re welcome here anytime!” she says.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Kuroo says. She smiled.

“None of that know, you’re under my roof, and I’ve accepted you into my home. You’re now like sons to me. And judging by the sadness and loneliness in your auras, you certainly need it. Call me Maho.” Damn she was good.

“Are all of you witches?” Hajime wondered out loud,” because all of your auras are really strong.”  Suga smiled.

“I’m a Seer, actually.” Suga said, “Hinata and Noya are crowborn, Yamaguchi’s a witch, Asahi is a wolfborn, Tsukishima is a earth elemental, Kageyama is a necromancer, and-”

“I’m a shifter,” Oikawa cuts in.

“A shifter?” Iwaizumi asks,” I thought those went extinct along with the great magic collapse!”

“Wrong. Don’t believe everything books say,” Oikawa says harshly. Hajime doesn’t like the way the sound of his voice feels on his skin. It was wrong. It was unhappy. Something inside him told him Oikawa should be happy.

“Oikawa darling, give him a break, he’s just now introducing himself to the magic community!” Maho admonishes. Oikawa grumbles.

“I read that your magic is really strong! And can you really turn into anything, even other people?” asked Daichi.

“Yes, my magic is equal to that of a witch. And yes, but I can only stay in that form for two to four hours, depending on how well I know it, how often I’ve turned into it, and how strong it is,” Oikawa explains.

“That’s awesome!” Kuroo says. Hajime agreed.

“This might be rude, but who is alpha?” asked Asahi. All three dragons looked at each other.

“I don’t know, we’ve never really talked about it,” said Kuroo.

“I think it would be Iwaizumi,” Daichi chimed.

“As much as I hate to say, I agree,” Kuroo adds.

“Guys-” Iwaizumi starts.

“It’s Iwaizumi,” They say in unison, cutting him off. Iwaizumi grumbles in embarrassment, and everyone laughs.

“Good job Iwa-chan!” Oikawa chirps,” Maybe you’re not a complete brute!”

“Shut the fuck up Crappykawa!” Iwaizumi barks.

“I take it back! Iwa-chan is mean!” Oikawa squeaks.

“At least his insults are creative,” Suga says, and they all nod in agreement, and Noya laughs.

“Mean, Kou-chan!” Oikawa pouts,” But anyway, I’m not going to town until I’m ready. So If you would wait, I could go in like, an hour.”

“Me too!” Suga says, running up the stairs. Oikawa follows him.

“Do I have to go, Mom?” Kenma says, and Maho nods. He frowns, and follows Suga and Oikawa up the stairs.

“I should probably go check on my boyfriend,” Yamaguchi says.

“Me too!” Hinata chirps, flapping his wings (how did he not notice those before?) and dashing up the stairs. Yamaguchi follows him with a laugh.

“Asahi! We need to get ready for work!” Noya says. Asahi jumps.

“Oh! Jeez, the time really flies, doesn’t it?” asked Asahi. They hurried up the stairs as well.

“Well, now that it’s just us, I’d like to ask you a few questions,” Maho says. Hajime gulps, and he can see his brothers get nervous as well out of the corners of his eye.

“Why did it take you so long to integrate into the human world?” Maho asks.

“We never saw any need. Then a few weeks ago, Kuroo remarked that he wished he had a horde, and I told him we could go into town, and that we needed a few things anyway.” Iwaizumi explains. Maho nods, and seems satisfied with the explanation.

“That’s to be expected, if you grew up with no guidance. What happened to your parents?”she asked.

“Well, by blood, I’m from a different family, but they died in a squabble over territory. Iwaizumi and Kuroo’s parents died when they went to go help them,” Daichi explained. Hajime tried to ignore the twinge of pain in his chest when he spoke of their parent’s death. After all these years, it never seemed to hurt any less that they were gone.

“Hm. How horrible. I have been hearing about a lot of movement on the dragon front...how have you been faring with your territory?” she asked.

“Well, a couple years ago we were attacked by a group of rogue dragons, but what they didn’t count on was three able-bodied male dragons within the same territory, so regrettably, they are no longer with us,” Kuroo sneered,” And everyone has steered clear since.” All three of their hackles raised at the thought of it.

“Down, boys,” Maho said,” Now my final question is more of a request. I like to use all of my children's true names, and I would like it if I could use yours.” Iwaizumi was touched.

“I think that’s okay. Kuroo, Sawamura, ya’ll alright with that?” Iwaizumi asked. They nodded. Iwaizumi walked up to Maho and cradled her hands, and smiled warmly.

“My name is Hajime,” he said. Kuroo took his place, and kissed her palms.

“My name is Tetsurou.” he smiles. Daichi takes his place. He squeezes her hands, thumbs in the middle of her palms.

“My name is Daichi.” And all three stepped back and bowed.

“Thank you, Maho-san!” they say in unison. Maho gives a little sound of surprise.

“It’s no trouble dears. I’m always happy to extend my family, and please, call me mom,” she chuckles.

“Still, we are very grateful...M-mom,” Daichi says. Maho waves her hands with a smile.

“Mom! We’re leaving for work!” Noya calls from the door.

“Be safe darlings!” she calls over her shoulder.

“Of course! Though I can’t promise anything for Noya, you know how he is!” Asahi calls back.

“All the same!” she answers. They hear the door open, and slam closed. Soon after, Suga and Kenma appeared. Suga was wearing a pink shirt that read ‘Fuck the world, I’m sleeping!’, a pair of long blue jean shorts, some white tennis shoes, and a green sleeveless parka. Kenma was in a very large black sweater, black jeans, black combat boots, a black beanie hipster style, and tapping away at the black rectangle again.

“Oikawa is finishing his hair, so it’ll be awhile. And did I tell you guys that you look really good? Those clothes worked wonders!” Suga said.

“Thanks,” says Daichi. Kuroo smirked, and Iwaizumi looked away in embarrassment. Kuroo sits by Kenma and silently watches him do whatever he’s doing, and Suga, Iwaizumi, Daichi, and Maho all engaged in small talk.

“Yahoo! I’m ready! Let’s go!” Oikawa announced eagerly, racing the steps. He was wearing silver, well fitting jeans, a black shirt, a long silver fur-lined parka, a necklace with a gray feather attached to it, a long gray shaded striped scarf, and some white converse. Iwaizumi refused to admit his heart skipped a beat when he saw him. He sighed. This had the makings of a very long day.

♡                               ~                             ♡

“Construction work? Seriously?” Oikawa asked. Daichi shrugged.

“I’ve always been good with wood,” Daichi explained,” Plus, the pay is good.”

“Where are they putting you?” asked Kuroo.

“The new housing development on the other side of town,” Daichi answered,” Did ya’ll have any luck?”

“Yeah, actually,” Kuroo said,” They hired me at a video game store not too far from here. You should have seen the look on Kenma’s face when we went in. He was ecstatic!”

“Shut up, Kuro,” came the deadpan response from Kenma.

“Don’t be mean to me, kitten!” Kuroo exclaimed.

“What the hell is a kitten?” Iwaizumi asked.

“It’s a cat, which is a small animal,” Oikawa explained.

“Oh. Can you eat them?” Iwaizumi asked.

“No you keep them as pets,” Suga chuckled. Daichi let out a thoughtful noise.

“Anyway, I got hired at a jewelers, actually. When they saw how much I wanted the job, they gave it to me,” Iwaizumi said.

“No, I think they gave you the job because you said you wanted the discount to buy their jewelry,” Oikawa said.

“Shut up,” Iwaizumi told him. They all laughed.

“Hey, it’s almost moonrise, we should really get home,” Daichi said. Oikawa pursed his lips.

“What?” Iwaizumi asked.

“I propose a sleepover!” Oikawa said.

“A sleepover?” Daichi asked quizzically.

“Ya know, when friends go over to one their houses and they sleep at their house, staying up late!” Oikawa says.

“Oh.” Kuroo says.

“Wouldn’t Mom be worried?” Daichi asked,” and plus, our home is pretty far.”

“It’s fine, we can send her a text! And I really want to see where you guys live!” Suga said.  

“Well, I mean, I’m fine with it,” Iwaizumi says,” as long as it’s okay with her.”

“I just sent Mom a text, she says it’s fine,” Kenma says. Oikawa nods.

“Then it’s all settled then!” he sings.

“Just don’t come crying if the walk is too long,” Iwaizumi says.

“I won’t Iwa-chan! My pride won’t allow me!” Oikawa said.

“I’ll carry you if you get tired, Kenma!” Kuroo said.

“Shut up, Kuro,” Kenma responded.

♡                               ~                             ♡

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa whines,” How much further?”

“By the Great Mother of Dragons, stop whining! We’re almost there!” Hajime responded. Tetsu snorted.

“Don’t drop me Kuro,” Kenma said.

“I won’t, Kitten.” he answered. Suga shook his head.

“You’re so lazy,” Suga told Kenma.

“You’re one to talk, you’re half hanging on me as is!” Daichi complained. Suga swatted him.

“We’re here!” Hajime said.

“Finally!” Oikawa said. They had stopped at a large clearing, with a large cave at one end of it, a fire pit, and several other items cluttered about. It was very lived-in.

“What’s with all the wood shavings?” asked Suga.

“We just finished with a really big project.” Daichi explained.

“The fire-caves are that way,” Hajime pointed south, then east,” And the waterfall is that way.”

“Cool. What was the project?” asked Oikawa. The dragons exchanged looks.

“We’ll show you tomorrow. The moonlight doesn’t do it justice,” Tetsurou said. Tetsu set Kenma down, and Hajime led them inside to the kitchen.

“You guys eat meat?” Hajime says.

“Uhm, cooked meat,” Suga says. Hajime rolls his eyes.

“Well duh, what do you think we are, savages?” Hajime says. Suga laughs.

“Well, I’m shifting, it’s been a long day,” Tetsu says.

“Keep in mind you have to switch back for dinner!” Daichi says.

“I know, I know, jeez, naggy,” Tetsurou says, stripping.

“What is this, a strip show?” Suga joked.

“No we’re just used to stripping down wherever we are and shifting. Not like there’s anybody else to to tell us no,” Hajime says. Tetsu finished taking off his clothes, and shifted. And three brothers gasped. Hajime supposed it was a sight to see if you weren’t used to it.

“That was way cool than while I look when I’m shifting!” Oikawa complained. Hajime shrugged.

“Go hunt while you’re in that form,” Hajime said in dragon tongue,” You should probably fish. That’ll be easier on their stomachs.” Tetsurou nodded and left the cave.

“What the hell was that?” Oikawa asked.

“Dragon tongue,” Daichi answered shortly.

“It sounded like a bunch of hissing and grunting. I mean, if I was in dragon form, I probably would have understood it, but still!” Oikawa said. Hajime shrugged.

“Hey, do you think we should let them call us by our true names inside the territory? Because if not, them I’m gonna get confused quick,” Daichi says to Hajime.

“Let’s wait for now, so we can decide together,” Hajime answers,” although I agree.” Daichi nods.

“You guys have other names?” Suga asked.

“Yeah, it’s kind of like your first names. We decided on our true names inside the territory, and our given names outside of it. It’ll get kind of confusing for us if you don’t use them. But of course that would come with rules,” Daichi says.

“Oh. That makes sense!” Oikawa says. A rumble from the entrance announced Tetsurou’s arrival.

“That was quick,” Hajime said in dragon tongue,” must have had good luck.” Tetsu nods, and deposits six good sized salmon on the kitchen table.

“I’ll clean up if you cook,” Daichi says.

“Kay,” Hajime answers, and asks Tetsurou in dragon tongue,” Do you want to tell them our names for inside the territory?” Tetsu tilts his head, thinking about it, then snorts fire at his feet.

“Rude,” Daichi and Hajime say. Tetsu grins.

“What did he say?” asked Oikawa curiously.

“I’m not repeating that,” said Hajime.

“No offense, but your kinda scary like that,” Suga says to Tetsurou.

“If you think he’s scary, you should see him,” Daichi says, pointing to Hajime.

“Says the dragon with the wicked ass scar on his stomach,” Hajime retorts.

“That doesn’t count! I almost died from that!” Daichi protests.

“What did he say about the name thing?” Kenma asked.

“He said it was fine,” Hajime answered.

“Well, I’m Daichi, and this guy here is Tetsurou,” Daichi said, pointing to Tetsu.

“And I’m Hajime,” said Hajime,” Obviously, you aren’t allowed to use those names outside of this territory. Got it?”

“Yep!” says Oikawa. Hajime nodded, and took the fish outside to clean and de-bone them. He came back to Oikawa telling a story about him as a kid when he accidentally shifted in his elementary school, and he couldn’t figure out how to shift back. He cooked the food silently when Kenma walked up to him, and silently offered his help. Hajime accepted equally as quiet. They served the food, and everyone sat down to eat, talking and laughing, the atmosphere light and airy. Even Kenma was smiling. When dinner was done, Hajime grabbed all of their extra blankets, and their their only two futons.

“What are those for?” Oikawa asked.

“For you not to be uncomfortable while sleeping.” he answered, taking his shirt off.

“H-hajime? What are you doing?” Oikawa asked, cheeks slightly pink. Hajime smirked.

“Shifting?” he answered cockily, an eyebrow raised,” What did you think I was doing?” Oikawa laughed nervously.

“Nothing!” Oikawa fidgeted. Hajime took off the rest of his clothes, and shifted. He heard Oikawa gasp behind him. He grabs the futon and blankets, and pulls them onto the ledge. Daichi and Kuroo have shifted as well, and are currently sweeping the area. They set the make-shift bed up in the middle.

“Uhm how are we supposed to get up there?” Suga asked. Hajime chuckled, and swooped down. He carefully grabs Oikawa (whom makes a very undignified squeaking sound he will deny he ever made) in his front talons, clambers up to the ledge, and deposits him onto the futons. A quick look around tells Hajime that his brothers have followed suit. The tree dragons curl around the futon, and watch as the brothers settle. Oikawa curls on the side closest to Hajime (and he refuses to admit to the purring sound he made when Oikawa petted his scales), and Suga on the side closest to Daichi, leaving Kenma in the middle. They settle into sleep and Hajime only closes his eyes when he hears the tattletale sign of Oikawa’s breathing evening out.

♡                               ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

Hajime blinked his eyes open when he felt movement next to him. The weak morning light filtered softly through the large cavern, not quite reaching the ledge. Hajime looked down to Oikawa trying to pick his way over his tail. He snorted, and moved it. Oikawa looked up at him sheepishly.

“Sorry, I was trying not to wake anybody up,” he whispered. Hajime removed himself from the pile, and picked Oikawa up in his claws. He jumped down, and dropped the shifter. He grabbed some clothes from his room and lumbered outside of the cave, beckoning for Oikawa to follow him.

“Where are we going?” Oikawa asked. Hajime nodded his head towards the east.

“Uhm, the...fire-caves?” Oikawa scrunched his nose. Hajime shook his head and pointed south with his tail. Then pointed east again.

“Oh!” Oikawa exclaimed, snapping his fingers,” The waterfall!” Hajime snorted fire at his feet.

“Didn’t Tetsu do that earlier, and you said it was rude?” Oikawa said. Hajime grinned and walked to the waterfall, Oikawa running after him with whines of meanie Iwa-chan! Hajime reached the riverbank, and shifted into his human form. He looked over his shoulder to see a dumb-founded Oikawa staring at him.

“What?” Hajime asked. Oikawa visibly blushed, and stuttered.

“N-nothing!” his voice was high and squeaky with the lie. Hajime let it slide.

“Wash up, we don’t have much time until everyone wakes up,” Hajime says. He steps into the falls, rubbing the skin clean with his hands. He runs a free hand through his hair and watches Oikawa stumble out of his clothes and into the water out of the corner of his eye. He tries very hard not to stare at the milky white skin, the thin yet somehow still muscular frame. He tries not to stare at chocolate brown hair become flat, water flowing smoothly through the silken locks. He fails. Hajime pulls himself out of the river and dries himself off with an extra shirt he brought. He pulls on a pair of gray sweats and leaves the shirt off in a second of deliberation. He looks over to find Oikawa stepping out of the water. He throws a muscle shirt and a pair of sweats at him, along with an extra t-shirt.

“Use the t-shirt to dry off, we don’t have towels,” Hajime tells him, averting his eyes,” The shirt should be okay, it’s Tetsu’s and you won’t stretch it out, so he should be okay with it, but the sweats might be a little big. They have a drawstring.” Oikawa hums in response. Hajime hears a rustle of clothing.

“I’m done!” Oikawa chirps. Hajime nods.

“We’re gonna go get breakfast from the orchard,” Hajime says, and walks to a gathering of fruit trees next to the garden. He picks twelve of the ripest fruit; an assortment of apples, pears, peaches, and plums.

“Wow! Those look really good!” Oikawa exclaims. Hajime shakes his head.

“I thought you couldn’t survive in the morning without coffee? Why do you have so much energy?” Hajime wonders.

“Caffeine pills,” Oikawa says shortly. Hajime snorts. Hey walk back, hands full of fruit, and Oikawa watches Hajime cut them into even slices. A small resounding whoosh has Hajime looking up from his work. Daichi has come down from the ledge, Suga in hand. Hajime nods at him, and his gets a bleary-eyed stare in return. Hajime, chuckling, turns back and cuts the rest of the fruit.

“Do you have any of those pills, Tooru?” Suga yawns. Oikawa shakes his head.

“I just used the last of them,” he answers.

“Damn,” Suga mutters. A few moments later, Daichi re-appears, in human form and fully clothed.

“Happy Hatching day, Hajime,” he grunts out, and Hajime is surprised he managed to remember at all this early in the morning.

“Thanks,” Hajime answers.

“Wait, it’s your birthday?” Oikawa asks.

“What’s a birthday? It’s me and Tetsurou’s Hatching day,” Hajime says, confused.

“Uhm, a birthday is the human version of a Hatching day. It’s the day they officially came into the world, basically,” Oikawa explains.

“Oh.”

“Are you guys twins?” Suga asks.

“No, we hatched from different eggs,” Hajime answers gloatingly,” I hatched first, actually. Which means Tetsu is my little brother.” He hears a muffled hiss from the ledge, and chuckles.

“What did he say?” Oikawa asks.

“Bitch, basically,” Hajime answered. Daichi chuckles sleepily.

“We should probably make them get up,” Suga said. Hajime shook his head.

“Let ‘em sleep, it’s the only day he gets to sleep in,” Hajime told him.

“Let me have some of that,” Daichi says, reaching for the fruit. Hajime pushes it closer to him.

“Remember to save some of the pairs, those are his favorite,” Hajime mutters.

“I know, I know,” Daichi says tiredly,” Trust me I know. He never shuts up when I do eat them.” They sit down to eat, saving Tetsu some pairs, and Kenma some apples.

“Me and Suga wanna gonna go wash up, go wake up the sloth,” Daichi throws over his shoulder.

“You’re just leaving so you don’t have to do it!” Hajime complained. Daichi shrugged, and Suga and Oikawa chuckle.

“I never thought I’d see you whine, Hajime!” Oikawa says,” Oh, how the tables have turned!”

“Shut up Shittykawa, that’s because you’ve never had to wake him up!”

“Geh! Hajime! Stop making up those nicknames! They’re awful, you brute! And plus, we have to wake up Kenma of all people, which is just as bad if not worse!” Oikawa huffed.

“Whatever Crappykawa,” Hajime mutters. Oikawa grins slyly, knowing he’s won.

“So what do you do for Hatching days to celebrate?” Suga asked.

“Eat, drink, visit family, and the Hajanir dance, of course,” Daichi says absent-mindedly.

“What the hell is the Hacnair dance?” Oikawa asked.

“Hajanir,” Hajime corrects,” It’s a dance that’s unique to every dragon. It’s only danced on Hatching days and Joining day. It’s a dance from that particular dragon to the Great Dragon Mother to give thanks for creation and life. It’s often also depicted as the literal embodiment of their personality. It’s very important to get right, because it might depict bad luck for subsequent events if done wrong. There must also be an equal balance of human and dragon form, in order to honor our promise to watch over man when the Stars ascended to the seventh sky.”

“At least, that’s what legend says. And no dragon has ever really tested that,” Daichi inputs.

“Wow. You guys have a really cool history!” exclaims Oikawa,” What’s your dance look like?”

“Well, while you humor him, we really are leaving this time!” Daichi shouts, from the entrance, pulling Suga along.

“Damn him,” Hajime mutters. He gets up and pulls a rock from the ground from outside. Throwing as hard as he can, he aims for what little of Tetsurou’s hide he can make out in the weak light.

“The hell!” Tetsu shouts in dragon tongue.

“Get up,” Hajime deadpans,” It’s hatching day, and we have a lot to do. Breakfast is on the table. Bring Kenma and the futon down with you.” Tetsu grumbles, and shifting is heard from on the ledge. A few minutes later, a grumpy dragon and very sleepy Kenma appear. Hajime recalls something he meant to ask the day before.

“Hey Kenma, I know what everybody else is, but what are you?” Hajime blurts. Two narrowed golden eyes turn to scrutinize him.

“It’s too early in the morning for this,” Kenma grumbles,” I’m a Druid.” Both dragon’s look at him in surprise. Oikawa smirks.

“He’s actually really powerful too!” Oikawa boasts,” Oh! And happy Hatching day Tetsu!”

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Tetsurou answers, running his fingers through his hair.

“When Dai gets back we can show them our project, then get ready for sunhigh,” Hajime suggests. Tetsu nods, and grabs a few slices of the fruit for him and Kenma, humming.

“Damn, Daichi’s missing out, he’s gotta winter Hatching day,” Tetsu mutters.

“Fuck you, Tetsurou,” Daichi says, entering the abode. Suga snickers, and Tetsu pouts.

“Well, now that you’re back we can show them the back,” says Hajime vaguely.

“Cool,” Daichi replies. Tetsurou gets up and stretches (when the hell did he shift into a human? Hajime must have missed that). Hajime beckons and leads his way to the caves.

“Who first?” Hajime asked.

“Me!” Tetsu says in excitement. He leads the way to his cave and flourishes at the entrance.

“I know it’s not much yet, but it’ll look a lot cooler when I have the cloth canopy and a couple of mannequins up! Hajime helped me with the mirrors,” Tetsurou babbled,” And Daichi made the woodwork of course!” The room opened into a pleasant amount of light, with the mirrors reflecting soft light beams perfectly across the room. The cabinets in here were different, made more for storage and sorting than displaying. The woodwork sported beautiful celtic-style knots and braided ropes. In the singular display case, lies the single roll of gold fluorescent cloth he found at the craft store.

“Wow,” Kenma whispers. Oikawa and Suga nod in agreement.

“Well, the other one is similar to this, but not as cool, so I’m not going to show you that one,” Tetsu says, shrugging his shoulders,” It’s not much right now! But it’ll get better!”

“You did great,” Kenma mutters. They stare at each other for a few seconds before blushing and looking away.

“Looks like I’m not the only one with a crush,” Hajime says in dragon tongue. Tetsurou frowns at him in response. Daichi laughs at him.

“Well, now that he’s done, you go Daichi. I wanna go last,” said Hajime.

“Sure. Okay, So you’ll notice I have the two largest caves, and that’s because I won the draw. Mine isn’t very good yet, a lot like Tetsu’s,” Daichi began, ignoring Tetsurou’s Hey! of protest,” They’re right through here. I just put the map up, I found it the library, and Hajime said I could have it.”

“I didn’t realize you gave him that map,” Tetsu murmurs.

“It’ll do him more good,” Hajime says firmly.

“I wasn’t objecting...just remembering,” Tetsu replies lamely.

“Remembering what?” Suga asked.

“Us as dragonets. Couldn’t even turn to human form back then! And I remember, whenever Hajime tried, he would have scales all down his arms, and couldn’t hold the form for very long. Those freckles on his arms? Rementents of those scales,” Tetsurou muses, tracing his fingers along the map,” I can’t tell you how many times Pa sat us down to this very map to get us to learn our geography. Someday you’ll have to get your own territory! He said, and I still remember the look in his eyes when he said it...ah well. It looks good here. I like it Dai, nice placement.” Daichi thanks him quietly, and they take another good look at the room as he gives a better uninterrupted tour. Along the walls, much like Tetsurou’s cave, are cabinets, but more so for display than storage. The woodwork is simple inter-weaving waves that interlock to form a symbol made out of braided water. The theme was obviously consisted, but every design was unique.

“These are breathtaking!” Suga exclaims.

“Thank you! It took me many years of practice to get up to this point,” Daichi beams. Tetsu lets out a cat-call, and without warning, Daichi turns around and clocks him in the head. Tetsu dodges it and hooks his leg around the back of Daichi’s ankles and swipes him to the floor. Daichi reaches out and grabs him and pins Tetsurou on the floor.

“As much as I’d like to place bets on the winner,” Hajime says,” It’s my turn, Get off the floor.” Obediently, they pull themselves up and brush each other off.

“Is…?” Oikawa began hesitantly.

“Is what?” Hajime asked him, gesturing for him to continue.

“Is that a once a day occurrence, or?” he finishes.

“Oh Stars no. I’d say at least five times a day. Doesn’t matter which two, or which form, or sometimes both, and sometimes all three of us, it just depends,” Hajime says nonchalantly.

“Right,” Oikawa mutters. Hajime led them into his brighter cavern, and the subsequent gasp was nearly palpable.  The cave walls were decorated with what seemed to be thousands of polished crystals on a silver string, gleaming in the morning light. There were some even wrapped around display cases, and strung from case to case then sort of inclined to the ceiling, much like the inside ceiling of a circus tent, all the strands of crystals ending at one fixed point in the middle of the ceiling, and looping to create a chandelier. In the display case on the far wall delicately lay the choker, turquoise diamond polished and velvet ribbon meticulously placed. Hajime pointed to the corner of the room. There, is what seems to be a deep, clear blue pool, not unlike the crystals it was reflecting. The water seemed to dance, casting a beautiful moving mural across the cavern, giving everything a dream-like look.

“The hell man? When did you find time to do this?” Tetsurou says, gesturing to the crystal canopy.

“And when did that get here?” Daichi points.

“Well Pa said a few years back they had trouble with water damage his library, so they moved it, and these were the only available rooms, so I figured there was a water source somewhere, so I stomped around in dragon form and that caved in,” Hajime shrugged,” And remember what you said about polished crystals almost being like jewelry in itself? I started to think, and I realized you were right, And I surprised myself with how badly I wanted some. So I went down to the river after tossing and turning all night, which was like the night before last night, and collected as many crystals as I could and brought them to the fire-caves. Needless to say, I made a lot of trips. After polishing each and every one of them, I realized I didn’t have the faintest idea what to do with them, nor did I have the space. So I trotted down to the storage cabinet, grabbed the prettiest, largest spool of thread we had, and began to string them on there, like you suggested I do. I dragged the whole mass down to my cave and remembered something about a chandelier. An idea started forming in my head, and before I knew it, I had this .” He gestured all around him.

“Did you have any left over?” Tetsu asked. Hajime shook his head.

“I used the rest for my other cave. Not nearly as extravagant as this, but there is a chandelier, and I think it’s a bit closer to what you had in mind when you said ‘ string up some crystals! ’ But still nice,” Hajime responds,” Tooru you okay?”

“You are not allowed to do this to me!” Oikawa said desperately, throwing his hands in the air,” Just what am I supposed to do with myself when you’re like this ?” He let out a groan of frustration and stomped away.

“What,” Daichi says. Kenma and Suga start laughing.

“Does he not like it?” Hajime’s quarry slices through the laughter.

“No, no, Hajime, he loves it, it’s just that he loves it a little too much,” Suga responds immediately. Hajime sulks.

“But-” he starts, but Kenma (of all people, Hajime thought he’d never see the day) interrupts.

“He likes you stupid. And when you go and do amazing things like this, he feels like he’s not good enough to have the feelings he does,” Kenma continues on, ignoring Hajime’s growing blush,” he likes you alot, and he feels like he isn’t good enough for you. And that he’ll never be no matter how hard he tries. So even if he tried to give up his feelings, he would just be reminded how amazing you are, and even though he thinks it’s hopeless, he can’t help but fall a little harder. But I don’t think it’s so hopeless. Do you?” His piece done, he walks away in the opposite direction Tooru went.

“That was the most I’ve ever heard him say to someone he doesn’t know very well,” Suga mutters.

"That was the most I've ever heard him say period," Daichi mutters a response.

“A dragon only falls in love once,” He tells Hajime in dragon tongue, clasping his shoulder,” Don’t miss your only opportunity at a mate.”

“I could say the same for you,” Hajime responds in turn. Tetsurou snorts and jogs after Kenma.

“Just don’t take too long, you’ve gotta be at the hill at sunhigh,” Daichi says dragging Suga in the direction that Tetsu went. Hajime finds his feet moving on their own, in the direction of Oikawa.

♡                               ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

Hajime finds Oikawa in the orchard, positively bawling. He watched as the tears spilled from those large, pretty brown eyes. He was an ugly crier. Hajime walked around making himself known and squatted in front of him. As soon as Oikawa had caught sight of him, he scrambled to make himself more presentable.

“I must look pathetic,” Oikawa sniffled.

“Yeah,” Hajime agreed,” You’re an ugly crier.” Oikawa glared at him, and Hajime grinned.

“Doesn’t make you any less beautiful,” Hajime added. Oikawa looked at him, eyes wide.

“I...I-I-” Oikawa stuttered. Hajime cupped his hand over his mouth and shook his head.

“Shhh,” he whispered. Hajime began to trace the contours of his face with his thumb. His other hand found Oikawa’s silky, beautiful brown hair (which somehow looked perfect despite everything), and began to rub on his scalp. Closing his eyes, Oikawa leaned into the touch, practically purring. Hajime smiled as soon as he closed his eyes. He pulled his hands away, ignoring his sound of protest, and grabbed at his hips, pulling him close. Oikawa’s eyes snapped open, watching him. Hajime buried his face in his neck and inhaled deeply.

“You smell good,” Hajime mumbled. Oikawa chuckled.

“Oh yeah? What do I smell like?” he mused.

“Like home,” Hajime answered, pulling back and looking him straight in the eyes.

“Home isn’t a smell Hajime,” Oikawa laughed shakily, diverting his eyes away.

“In you it is,” Hajime said, pressing a hand to his cheek to guide his gaze back.

“...What does ‘Home’ smell like?” Oikawa says in a small voice.

“Like vanilla and fruit curtis,” Hajime smiles. Oikawa’s body sags, and he climbs onto Hajime’s lap (he was practically already on it anyway) and hangs his head on his shoulder.

“I’m not good enough for you,” Oikawa says. Hajime shakes his head.

“But you’re perfect,” he answers.

“But I’m not,” Oikawa shoots back.

“Well, what can I say? You’re perfect for me,” Hajime responds. Oikawa groans.

“Give me some credit,” Hajime begins, and Oikawa tries to cut him off but he plows through,” Us dragons are excellent judges of character. We know instinctively who to steer away from, and who to hold in high regard. And if I were to categorize you, you would be in the latter by far. And, well, I-Us dragons...we...we only fall in love once, and after that we will forever love them and cannot love anybody else.” Oikawa looked at him, large brown eyes narrowed, contemplating.

“You’ll never leave me?” he asked finally.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Hajime answered easily. Oikawa nodded, slowly, and cradled Hajime’s cheeks with his hands. Hajime smiled, and Oikawa sucked a breath in.

“I know,” Oikawa says, and it takes Hajime a second to realize it was a response to his answer.

“How do you know?” Hajime retorted. Oikawa grinned mischievously.

“ Because Hajime thinks I’m beautiful .”

“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

“For as long as you’ll have me.”

“I’ll always have you, Tooru.”

“Then no, I guess not.” Oikawa said cheekily. Hajime smirked in response. Then his face settled to a fond smile, and he reached out, copying Oikawa’s pose, hands at his cheeks. He settles his nose on his, silently asking, and Oikawa presses his forehead to his in permission. Hajime tilted his head slightly for a better angle, and presses his lips against Oikawa’s. Despite the chasteness of the kiss, he would describe it like when he breathes fire , warmth tickling inside of his lungs and chest, steadily growing hotter as it roared for release; screaming, mineminemineminemineMINE ! Hajime pulled back, and looked at him fervently and intensely.

“Hajime, you’re not allowed to smolder me, stop it,” Oikawa said.

“Oikawa…” Hajime began, looking away.

“What?” Oikawa said, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

“I should probably warn you.”

“About what?”

“Uhm, the nature of a dragon? Especially when it comes to mates and dragonets? Assuming you want those?”

“We’ll talk about that later, more on this ‘nature’ thing.”

“We are really super possessive. And jealous. So...yeah. I probably won’t be able to let you out of my sight for like the next week or so or my instincts will freak the fuck out. Just a small warning.”

“...Do I have to stay here the whole time? How long will it take to wear off?”

“No, just stay in my line of sight, or if you really have to, within fifty feet in my human form so I can smell you. And give me a week, then I’ll start being more lax about it, I promise.”

“Only a week?”

“Only a week.”

“Okay, I can deal with that.”

“Cool. Now come on, I have to get ready for sunhigh.”

“Alright. And Hajime?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I call you by your name whenever I want now?”

“...Yes, I do believe you’ve earned that right.”

“Good. And Hajime?”

“Yes, Oikawa?”

“Can you give me a piggyback ride?”

“....Fine.”

“And Hajime?”

“Yes Tooru?”

“I like you.”

“I like you too, dumbass.”

“ Meanie Hajime! ”

♡                               ~                             ♡

Hajime and Tooru burst into Hajime’s bedroom, and Hajime set Tooru down on the bed.

“Holy shit, I just realized I haven’t seen your bedroom yet!” Tooru exclaimed. Hajime chuckled.

“Not much to see, just a rickety bed, a wardrobe, and clothes every-fucking where, what the hell .”

“What do you need to do to get ready?”

“Hm? Oh, well, first of all, ceremonial robes have to be washed in natural spring and purified with dragon fire, then donned immediately. The ceremony then commences, and we have to collect golden fish each (before the ceremony), and burn them, spreading the ashes among the highest place in the territory, which for us is the hills on top of the ravine, to honor our ancestors. Then braziers are brought by next-of-kin; which for us would be Daichi, since we would have to join for you to be official kins in the eyes of the Stars and the Great Mother Dragon, and courting takes a whole sun-cycle; and lit with dragon fire at the Northern sky, Eastern sky, Western sky, and Southern sky, which are the first four layers of skies. Then as each dragon dances they start in human form and end in dragon.”

“Wouldn’t that ruin the clothes?”

“Ah, usually, if these were normal robes. Each dragon has a set of robes sent down from Vackla; which is a dragon haven, floating in the skies and territory of the Royal Highness. If there was one. Now it’s just pretty much neutral ground. You can only get in or out if you are a dragon, mated to a dragon, being courted by a dragon, or are the child of a dragon. No exceptions.”

“Okay, that sounds awesome. I wanna go!”

“Someday, love. Now back to-”

“Love?”

“...I won’t say it again if you don’t want me to.”

“Oh my god, you are so awkward, it’s adorable. And I love it, but now I’m gonna have to make one for you...anyway, continue.”

“Okay...so, where was I?”

“I think something about the robes.”

“Oh! Right, I was going to explain how they work. So, The cloth comes from the tail feathers of a bennu so it’s impervious to fire, and it’s been blessed by the dragon priests, so it’s magic. It melds in with your scales, so in dragon form you can’t tell it’s there, and it automatically shows up exactly same when you shift back. It also expands to fit your form, so basically it grows with you. A lot of dragon armor is made of the stuff, and that’s why it fetches for such a high price on the black market.”

“Interesting,” Tooru hummed,” But I have a question.”

“Go for it,” Hajime said, eyebrow raised.

“You mentioned royalty. I didn’t know dragons had royalty.”

“We don’t. At least not anymore. Not for over a thousand years.”

“What happened?” Tooru asked, eyes shining curiously.

“I’m not supposed to talk about this, but if it’s you I’ll make an exception,” Hajime said hesitantly,” But a thousand years ago, our last king was a kind and good king. He made sure dragon-human relations were strong. But his three sons disagreed. They thought humans weak and below them, and turned against the stars. So one night, the oldest hired an assassin to kill their father. The next morning, the king was dead.”

“What happened after that?!” Tooru said, hanging onto his every word.

“Well, that morning, when the crowned prince received the news, he acted sorrowed,” Hajime continued,” But secretly, he rejoiced. He was going to get rid of those pesky humans, once and for all! That sunhigh, the entire kingdom gathered at the courtyard of the castled to watch the coronation. But just as the crown was to be set on his head, the sky darkened.”

“No!” Tooru gasped.

“Yes. The prince watched in horror as a Star descended from the sky. The star was beautiful, but very angry. ‘Little prince, we know what you did to your father.’ the Star said, for all to hear, ‘We are going to punish this behavior. Let us make an example of this set of princes! Murder and unbalance shall not be tolerated! And so let it be known, from this point forward, the lineage of dragon princes is cursed! If you cannot pull the sword from the stone using your own means, you may not ascend the throne lest you be visited upon by our wrath! If you try, three days after you become king, you will die from unforeseen circumstances.’ And the Star pointed at a rock not far from the prince and a sword appeared, made from star metal, a metal only made in the seventh sky. Then disappeared. The clouds rolled back, and the day continued on. The prince decided not to obey their orders. Who were they to mess with him? The great dragon prince? And so quickly, he convinced the kingdom that the words were told by a phony, and they were to be punished.”

“He’s a fucking moron.”

“I know right? Anyway, The prince went ahead and ascended the throne, and just as foretold, he died three days later.”

“From what?”

“They say that his own mate killed him, then killed herself.”

“That’s horrible!”

“It is. Now let me continue.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. So the next day, the middle brother was a bit wiser. He went up to the stone and pulled! And he pulled, and he pulled, but he couldn’t even get the sword to budge! He grew angry. Who was a stupid rock to tell him , the next king of dragons, anything? And so he ascended the throne. On his third day, the king fell to the floor, dead. ‘Poison in his food’ they said. The next brother became even wiser than his older siblings. With the threat of death over his head, he disappeared. No one ever saw him again. As the story goes, he ran away and raised a family, and anyone could be a dragon prince!”

“Even you?” Tooru asked suddenly.

“Yes. Even me,” Hajime said amusedly,” but I doubt it. Ma didn’t like royalty, and Pa was female. But now that I think about it, they are around the right age.”

“What?” Tooru asked in confusion.

“Oh, yes I forgot. You see, gender is a social construct made by humans. For a dragon, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female, because sex is only used for pleasure.”

“Then how the hell are dragonets made?”

“It’s an ancient sort of magic few outside of the dragon community know. We gained it from the stars. We pool our magic together on the night of a solstice, and the magic melds to form an egg. There’s a complicated casting spell and ritual involved, but it’s one of the first a dragon learns.”

“That’s fucking awesome. So like, let’s say a dragon was asexual? They could have kids anyway?”

“What is that?”

“When you don’t want or need sex.”

“Oh. Then yes.”

“Fucking cool. Keiji would love that!”

“Don’t tell.”

“I won’t!”

“Hm, alright. Now quit distracting me, I have to get ready. Dammit, how did this turn into an impromptu storytime?”

“I dunno.” Tooru shrugged, sprawling across the bed onto his belly. Hajime sighed. He turned and opened his wardrobe. At the bottom, lay a jeweled chest (which he now loved all the more, he planned on putting it in his display case, he just hadn’t gotten around to it yet) and pressed a finger to the keyhole.

“Open,” he said in dragon tongue (to prevent theft), and the lid popped open.

“Whoa!” Tooru said. Hajime grinned and heaved the chest onto the bed beside Tooru. Inside were jade shimmery silken robes, and Hajime carefully took them out and laid them on the bed. He closed the chest, deciding to leave it there so he would remember to put it in his horde-caves later, and beckoned for Tooru to follow him. He picked the clothes up (careful Hajime!) and walked all the way to the waterfall. Wading through the cool water carefully, he placed the clothes in the water and began to chant. The clothes immediately began glowing, like a jade fire. He heard Tooru gasp in delight, but continued his spell. He soon pulled the clothes from the fire, and hurried to the fire-caves hoping Tooru would get the message to follow him. He reaches them (with Tooru closing in behind, thank the Stars) and clumsily strips out of his clothes. He shifts quickly and before the glow fades, begins to purify the robes with a well-aimed shot of fire. The job is quickly over however, and Hajime relaxes in relief. He shifts back, and pulls the garment on, taking care to not scuff the fabric. Despite most of it being differentiating shades of green, there’s also gold accents, and it matches his scales as a dragon very well. Typically, people get the contrasting colors of their scales, get he got the color of his scales. It’s probably supposed to mean something like ‘he’s exactly as it looks or some bullshit like that. Anyway back to what the clothes look like, the pants on it are sort of what humans would describe as ‘genie pants’ (whatever the hell a genie is), but just a smidge bit lower on his hips, and a higher cut on the legs, so they end at about below his knees. The shirt of the fabric is simply a scarf-like thing (he bet Tooru approved), wrapped around his torso and pulled over his shoulder. Apparently, it’s the style of the ancient royalty and warriors. He has a silver circlet with a jade bead, a matching set of silver anklets (a whole lot of them; even more than Tetsurou), some silver arm bands on his biceps with jades in them (to match the circlet), and a string that goes around his neck with small jade jewels hanging off of it, which now Hajime understands, because his robes have a bit more jewelry than most and now he loves it that much more, His feet (along with some of his leg, about 8 inches of cloth from his ankle, up) and hands have similar shaded wraps around them. He turns to see Tooru watching him, an unreadable expression.

“You okay?” he asked, voice still hoarse from the fire.

“I’m fine, my contacts are bothering me,” Tooru lies,” I should have taken them out last night.”

“I’m not even going to ask what that is,” Hajime responds, promising himself to burn him for anwsers later. Right now, he doesn’t have the time.

“Okay, let’s go,” Hajime beckons, and Tooru follows. Hajime and Tooru trudge up to the hills just as the sun is looming over.

“I thought you were going to be late!” Tetsurou calls.

“Not a chance,” Hajime replies. Tetsurou is wearing robes similar to Hajime’s, but still with major differences. While Hajime has something on his upper body, Tetsurou simply wears nothing at all, shoulders and waist draped in red, orange, and gold jewels (which Hajime nods approvingly at), and a long shimmery-silk fiery-red/golden (it now made sense why all his cloth on his was such good quality now) scarf hanging from the crooks of his elbows elegantly. Several gold bracelets (matching Hajime’s silver anklets, just not quite as many around the ankles) adorn his ankles and wrists, clanking when he moved. On his head (half hidden by his tangle of black hair) was a gold circlet embedded with a ruby. On his lower body, is a garment much like Hajime’s, except a bit longer and stopping about 4 inches below the knee, and was the same color as the scarf.

“What’s with the tattoos?” Suga wondered out loud. Hajime raised an eyebrow and looked at the tattoos that displayed themselves proudly. He had them on his chest, back, and legs as well.

“What? You don’t have them?” Tetsurou asked.

“Uhm, no,” Tooru snorted.

“We’ll explain later,” Daichi shoos them off.

“So did you sort it out?” Tetsu asked in dragon tongue.

“Depends on what you mean by ‘sort it out’,” Hajime teases, looking at Tooru out of the corner of his eye, making sure he was still there, and very much okay. Actually, he looked rather excited.

“ You did! ” Tetsu gasps,” You have to tell me all about it later!” Hajime rolls his eyes, and Daichi brings him one of the golden fish he and Tetsurou caught ( ‘Sorry’ ‘No problem, just remember all the juicy details, I will be burning you for them’ ‘Ack!’ ), and gives Tetsurou the other, then quickly goes to get the braziers ready. The ceremony has commenced. Everything seems to fall away as Hajime breathes fire into existence, watching the golden scales of the fish be consumed by the heat. Holding the ashes in his hands, he throws one handful on the side of the hill, and holds the other for the wind to take. Daichi places and lights the braziers with his fire, and they take their cue. Hajime places one heel into the earth a step behind him facing South, and his toes one step in front of him facing North, and pivots, bringing his hands up with an elegant twist of his wrists. He swings his back leg (now from North) up towards his front (South) and then twists his torso in half in motion with his arms, bent at the elbows. Straightening himself up, he hops half a step back and pushes his body up into the air on his toes. He jumps and spins, legs going up to form a perfect split, arms across his chest and head tilted slightly. Landing (East) hard on his heel, he uses the momentum to swing his back leg (West) into a strong kick in time with a well-aimed fist, foot tilted slightly, toes pointed up. He swings his foot back and swings his hands to cross over his torso, palms touching the fiery-green fabric there. As he pulls them up, wrists tilted down and beginning to tilt up, he shifts. His wings extend instead of wrists, and he twirls. Stepping forward (East) he curls his barbed tail, and sways (North to West, South to East). He crouches all four legs and jumps, body twisting horizontal in mid-air, tucking his wings in. Landing lightly, he pulls himself up on his hind legs, twists his tail vertically, and extends his right wing from it’s tucked in position, raising it to elegantly hide his face. The quietly lowers himself onto all fours, tucks his wings back, and looks up into the sky. Gathering fire, he blasts it into the sky (Starting North) along the path of the circle in which he danced. He nods in satisfaction, and takes a bow. He hears clapping and cheering, and amusedly looks up to Their guests clapping and cheering. Even Kenma was standing, eyes wide. Tooru looked like he’d just been blessed by the best sight of his life, and he’s looked in the mirror. Hajime grinned, puffing his chest out in pride. He feels a smack on his right flank and Tetsurou slinks past giving him a look. He huffs, and shifts back, Tetsu following suit.

“Wha-” Hajime begins.

“That was amazing Hajime!” Tooru exclaims, flying at him. Hajime catches him, and Tooru wraps his legs around his waist, nuzzling his nose. Hajime smiles shyly at the affection, and nuzzles back. Tetsurou whistles. Hajime turns his head to glare at him, and he grins in response. He turns his head back to find Kenma smirking and Suga’s mouth hanging open, looking slightly miffed.

“I thought for sure!” Suga says, stomping his foot. Kenma’s smirk gets wider.

“Someone owes me a new videogame,” Kenma sing-songs, and chuckles. Hajime’s eyebrow raises when he sees Tetsurou raise two fingers to his temple and sweeps in a rightside-up curving motion, then swipe them down vertically.

“What was that?” Tooru whispers, seeing Tetsu do it too. Hajime grins.

“A sign that basically means ‘Thank the Stars for blessing me’,” he whispers back. Tooru giggles.

“Somebody’s got a crush,” he singsongs.

“Don’t interfere, kay?” Hajime tells him.

“Why?”

“Because if I’ve done something to be with the person I like, the others will follow suit.”

“Is it because you’re alpha?”

“No, it’s because of several reasons. One of them is the fact that they don’t want to be left behind. Another is they see how happy I am, and they’ll want that. And lastly, it’s because it’s simply something that every dragon craves. Companionship.”

“...Oh.” Tooru mutters. Hajime smiles fondly, and sets him down.

“Hey Haj, ya’ll done?” Daichi shouts at them,” because we’ve still got The Hunt and The Feast to begin.”

“Coming!” Hajime shouts back.

“What are you going to hunt?” Tooru asks.

“Well, if a sibling was born on the same Hatching day, you do something called The Hunt. Usually, the main catch at dinner is caught by the dragon they’re celebrating, but since there’s two of us, we have a little competition. Not all dragons do this if they have siblings, most of the time they just trade off years, but this way is more fun, and besides, it’s our family tradition.” Hajime answers.

“Well what’s the competition?” Tooru asked as they reached the rest of the group at the edge of the forest.

“Whomever comes back with the biggest catch, wins,” Tetsu answered,” And this year, I’ll win for sure!”

“Over my dead body!” Hajime grins.

“I just might!” Tetsu teases.

“What do you win?” Suga asked.

“Well, I could tell you that!” Tooru says,” Bragging rights! Pride! Duh!”

“Now he’s gettin’ it!” Tetsu says. Hajime and Daichi laugh.

"Hey Daichi?" asked Hajime.

"Yes?" Daichi answered.

"Protect him while I'm gone, okay?" Hajime said seriously.

Daichi looked him straight in the eyes and said "With my life brother." Hajime smiled, satisfied. 

“Well, Dragons! Same rules every year! No sabotage, no weapons, and no dragon form! That includes hybrid form, Tetsu I’m looking at you!” Daichi announces, clapping his hands together.

“It was one year!” says Tetsurou, exasperated.

“It was one year too many!” Daichi responds,” I want a nice clean hunt, bring us back something good! Remember, you’re both tied this year, and we have guests! So a lot is at stake! Now, with that being said, Let The Hunt begin!”

♡                               ~                             ♡

Chapter Text

His feet pounded the earth as he flew (not really, that was a figure of speech)  through the forest. On his late-night expedition to make his crystal ceiling, He had seen a few animals wave about in the dark. One of which he knew Tetsurou wouldn’t dare go anywhere near, and the other he had to race to make sure he could catch them first. And the added bonus that he knew where their nest was. He reached a small gathering of rock and brush that created an overhang; the ideal place for a land-bound bird to pick for their nest. He crouched among the bushes, waiting quietly.

“Anybody home…” he muttered just as a large female turkey strutted out into the small clearing. She squawked, and came closer to where he was. He couldn’t believe his luck when realized he was squatting next to a berry bush, an ideal food source for unsuspecting prey, but also the perfect hiding place for the ever-vigilant hunter. The bird reached the bush, and just as she did, Hajime reached out and grabbed her. She squawked and squirmed, but could not remove Hajime’s vice-like grip. Hajime muttered a small ‘ sorry ’ and snapped her neck. Her slit her throat to bleed his kill out, and threw it over his shoulder. By getting his feathered quarry first, it made it so that not only was it food, but also bait for something slightly larger. Hajime headed deeper into the forest, towards the very Northern edge of his territory. There, lie a small, dark cave, perfect for any large animal to make a home in. A large animal they could not afford eating all of their game. What a better time to bring it back then a hunting competition? He snuck up to the entrance of the cave and peeked inside. Perfect, the animal lay sleeping in the dim evening sunlight. Hajime put his catch at the entrance of the cave, and then grabbed a rock. Sticking the rock between his teeth, he climbed a tree. Pulling himself on a hefty looking branch that loomed above the entrance of his prey’s den. He took the rock and flicked his wrist, expertly releasing it. The rock flew into the entrance at a perfect angle, and he heard the grunt of the large animal waking. He smelled the horrible wet-fur smell, heard it’s labored breathing to get up (it was a little too labored. Was it sick? Well, better for him), practically tasted the mud that clung to it’s fur, could feel the sting of sharp claws digging in his skin at an attempt to fight back. Finally, the huge black bear came into sight, sniffing at the bird. Perfect. Hajime stood up slowly, as to not alarm the creature quite yet, and balanced himself on his branch. Just a little more to the left...there! And Hajime jumped onto the bear’s back, wrapping his arms around it’s throat. It took a few shocked seconds for the large creature to register what just happened, but when it did oh boy , it began to wildly flail in attempt to shake him off. He kept at it, tightening his hold around the bear’s throat, constricting the airflow, strangling it. He kept his arms locked like that for many minutes until the bear weakened, and finally, collapsed. Now Hajime knew his job wasn’t done. The hard part was over, yes, but it was merely knocked out, not dead. Hajime dragged it so that it’s head rested on a rock. Pressing his foot at the base of it’s neck, he adjusted his arms around it and twisted as hard as he could. He heard a clear snap! of the bones, instantly killing the large creature. Satisfied, Hajime went to his bird, used his scarf to tie it to his torso, and hauled the bear onto his shoulders. He staggered by the heaviness of the corpse, but adjusted his pace quickly enough. He knew Tetsurou would already be done by now, and he hoped his catch made up for his speed. Trudging forward, it took Hajime awhile to pick through the foliage, to make sure the coat stayed nice. Stopping at the edge of the forest, he dropped his prey at his feet with a grunt and looked up to five very shocked faces.

“How’s that for big?” Hajime asked.

♡                               ~                             ♡

“ Seriously, Hajime!” Tetsurou protested,” A bear? Are you insane? We can’t even eat that!”

“What better way to hunt a bear than with your bare hands?” Hajime said, holding up his fingers, ignoring Tetsu’s ‘ no, stop it, never do that again ’,” And plus, that’s why I got this!” He holds up his turkey.

“What the hell,” Tooru says. Suga bursts out laughing. Kenma’s holding up his little black rectangle.

“Okay, Hajime, that was a little extreme, I guess you really wanted to win!” Daichi laughs.

“I really wanted to impress Tooru,” Hajime says with honest earnest. Suga was wheezing, and Kenma was moving around so he was at the back of everyone, still holding up the black rectangle.

“What. The. Actual. Hell. How can you be so adorable? You just killed a humongous I might add, bear with your bare hands, pun not intended, and you still have the audacity to act adorable? What are you? How is that even legal ?” Tooru babbles. Hajime blinked.

“Are you impressed?” he asked, not understanding what Tooru was trying to get at.

“ Yes, yes! Very! ” Tooru said, throwing his hands up, almost hysterical.

“Then I accomplished what I wanted to,” Hajime answered.

“I hate you,” Tetsu tells him.

“I’m going to make me a nice cloak out of this,” Hajime says, ignoring him,” But do you think there’s enough for like a fur coat or something?”

“I hate you so much,” Tetsurou says again. Hajime finds it hard to suppress his smile.

“Definitely,” Daichi answers.

“Cool, Tetsu, can you make it for me?” Hajime says innocently.

“Go to hell,” Tetsu answers somberly.

“I’ll give you whatever is leftover and dibs on the hides for the next three turns,” Hajime bargains patiently, knowing he would take the bait.

“I meant hell yeah,” Tetsu perks up.

“Cool. I’m going to go skin it and start the tanning process, it’ll be ready in a few days, okay?” Hajime inquired.

“Sounds fine,” Tetsurou answered.

“I still can’t believe you caught that. With your bare hands,” Suga said, finally done laughing.

“I can,” Daichi and Tetsu say in unison.

“He has a way of surprising you like that,” Daichi explains.

“Really now?” Tooru says sarcastically. Hajime shakes his head and makes to pick up his quarry, but Daichi intercepted him.

“You’re exhausted, let me carry it,” He says, shooing him away.

“But-”

“No buts.”

“...Fine.”

Daichi heaves it over his shoulders; staggers a little, regains his footing, and starts walking, Suga staring at him a little before moving after him. Everyone trails along after him. Upon reaching home, Daichi slides the catch to the ground.

“Damn that was heavy,” Daichi muttered.

“You offered,” Hajime shrugged. Daichi chuckled and shook his head.

“Tetsu grab your buck and the turkey, we have a feast to cook, and Hajime has a lot on his hands already,” Daichi says. Tetsurou sighs, and grabs the turkey from Hajime, and everyone but Hajime and Tooru go inside. Hajime drags the game to the tanning rocks, and begins to gut and skin it. Tooru looks away in disgust.

“Sorry,” Hajime says without looking up from his work.

“It’s fine, it’s just why is there so much gosh darned blood? ” Tooru asked rhetorically. Hajime smiled and shook his head. He skinned it, and pulled all of the meat off the bones (he knew it would sell fairly well on the dragon market if he froze it for awhile). He cleaned the skull and placed it on the rock to bleach for decoration. It would look great on their new coffee table. He cracked open the bones and dumped all the marrow out onto a pile, because he knew Tetsu would want to use it for fertilizer. He left the rest of the bones out to bleach as well, to make jewelry, knives, and other assorted things (mostly jewelry). He prepared the skin for tanning, and spread it out on the rocks. Work finished, he sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes. A few moments later, he felt Tooru’s fingers in his hair, rubbing on his scalp. He hummed, and his body relaxed.

“Tired?” Tooru asked, continuing his ministrations. Hajime hummed in agreement, and they sat there like that until Suga called them in for dinner.

♡                               ~                             ♡

That night, after a bit of feasting, talking, and laughing, They decided to retire to separate bedrooms. Suga and Kenma on futons in Daichi and Tetsurou’s room’s respectively. Hajime just picked Tooru up and deposited him in his bed.

“Wow, that was a long day,” Tooru groans, stretching,” Wonderful, yes, but I am emotionally, physically, and socially spent.” Hajime hums in agreement and starts carefully taking off his robes, and puts it inside the jeweled chest. He closes it, places it on the floor (he really needs to put that in his horde rooms), and pulls on a pair of briefs and a pair of black sweats.

“Feel free to use anything inside my closet, I give no fucks,” Hajime said Tooru nods, and gets up to change. Hajime makes the bed, and slips in between the sheets. He looks up to see Tooru slide in beside him, wearing one of his shirts and briefs. He smiles, and pulls him closer. Tooru snuggles into his chest, and Hajime settles his arms on his hips, face nuzzling into his hair. Just he was about to fall asleep, he hears Tooru speak.

“Hajime?”

“Yes?”

“...Do you want dragonets?”

“Eventually, yes.”

“...Do you think I would be a bad parent?”

“I think you would be a wonderful parent.”

“...What would they call me?”

“Whatever they felt like.”

“I like that.”

“Mn.”

“Hajime?”

“Yes love?”

“Talk to me.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know, anything. About yourself, maybe?”

“Alright.” And so they talked for hours into the night, about anything and everything. Secrets, fears, desires, wishes, likes, dislikes, dreams. Until silence settled and they had nothing more to say, simply enjoying being there, and fell asleep in the other’s arms.

♡                               ~                             ♡

The next morning, Hajime woke up to Tooru snuggled next to him. He smiled, and carefully crept out of bed, not wanting to wake him. He finds a pair of slacks, a green dress shirt, a pair of his father’s oxfords that have never been out of the closet, some nice socks and stuffs them all in a bag. He throws on a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt. He walks (quietly) to the kitchen, and grabs some leftovers, heats them up, and begins plating them when he feels arms wrap around his waist.

“Hey,” Hajime greets Tooru. Tooru hums in response.

“Food?” Suga asked, peeking into the kitchen with Daichi at his heels. Hajime smiles and shakes his head.

“Yeah. Dai, don’t forget to pack your work clothes, we’re all starting today,” Hajime says. Daichi yawns, and disappears to his room.

“I am so glad it’s summer right now,” Suga sighs. Tooru groans his agreement.

“Why?” Hajime asks, serving both of them a plate of food.

“Because Uni sucks,” Tooru said.

“What’s that?” asks Hajime.

“A school for grown-ups,” Suga says, digging into the food.

“Why would you need that?” Hajime asked.

“To get special jobs,” Tooru answers,” I’m going to be an Astrophysics Engineer.”

“Oh,” Hajime says, not really getting it. Daichi reappears, practically dragging Tetsurou and Kenma along with him. Hajime gives them plates, and he puts his own aside for Tetsu to clean. It’s an unspoken rule that Hajime cooks breakfast, and Daichi and Tetsu take turns cleaning it up. Tooru finishes, and Hajime drags him to the river to wash up. Feeling a bit more refreshed, Hajime turns to Tooru.

“Do you have anything to work on or whatever? There’s a coffee shop next door, that I can still smell you from. I checked,” Hajime says.

“Yeah, I have a bit of break homework, that works,” Tooru says,” And we can have lunch together!” Hajime nods an affirmative, and stops outside the cave to re-adjust the hides. They go back inside to find everyone finished and ready. Hajime grabs his bag.

“So how are we doing this?” Daichi asks.

“Well I figured we could fly to the edge of the forest in our dragon forms, change quickly, with them catching a ride. It’ll save a lot of time,” Hajime explains,” Enough so that they can go home and real quick grab some clothes or do whatever they do in the morning.”

“If you hold my bag,” Tooru says,” I can shift as well. I’ve been meaning to do it.”

“Do your powers get weaker if you don’t shift often?” Tetsurou inquired.

“As a manner of speaking,” Tooru says,” But it’s also like a muscle that you have to stretch, or an itch that needs to be scratched.”

“Oh! Cool!” Daichi says. Suga chuckles at his enthusiasm.

“Okay, that’s fine. What are ya gonna shift into?” Hajime asks.

“Hm, I don’t know. Maybe a dragon, or some sort of bird? Something with wings, obviously,” Tooru says.

“Dragon! Do a dragon!” Hajime says, all too eagerly. Daichi and Tetsu let out shouts of agreement. Tooru shrugs.

“Alright, I don’t see why not,” Tooru shrugs. Everyone cheers, and even Kenma looks slightly interested.

“So, do you look like what you would look like as a dragon, or what?” Tetsu asks.

“I’m a shifter, not a mimicker,” Tooru says indignantly. Tetsu holds his hands up in surrender. Tooru pulls himself behind the trees, and there’s a rustle of clothes. A few moments later, a large figure hesitantly comes into view. Hajime, Daichi, and Tetsurou’s jaw’s dropped.

“ Holy shit! ” Tetsurou exclaimed.

“Hot damn, Hajime, you got fuckin’ lucky,” Daichi agrees.

“I mean, I knew he was pretty, but-” Tetsurou waves his hands in Tooru’s direction,” Poor Hajime.” Daichi nods.

Hajime is speechless.

Tooru is beautiful. In dragon form, he’s of the sea variety, With slits of gills on the side of his neck and fins on his four limbs and tail, with webbed claws. His brown eyes shimmer next to the silver scales at the wings of his eyes. His scales were a beautiful crystal blue, with dashes of dancing turquoise, giving the illusion of sunlight filtering through water every time he moved. Tooru curls his tail around himself, waiting for Hajime’s verdict.

“ Beautiful .” Hajime whispers. Tooru visibly beams.

“Is he really that pretty?” Suga asks with a frown.

“For a dragon? I mean, sea dragons are supposed to be prettier, because they are generally more colorful, but even for a sea dragon, Tooru definitely is.” Daichi answers.

“It just puts it perspective how pretty they are for us, like, I feel like I would die if I saw Kenma as a dragon. Ya know, cause he’s already so pretty now,” Tetsurou babbles. Kenma blinks at him.

“Same for Suga,” Daichi agrees. Suga beams.

“Hey Suga,” Kenma says.

“Huh?”

“I’ve decided what my third form is going to be.”

“What?”

“A dragon.” On that note, Kenma turns away.

“He can do that?” Tetsurou wonders.

“It takes months of practice and a pact with that creature, not to mention he can only have a total of five forms,” Suga explains.

“Oh. What other forms does he have?” Daichi asks.

“ Black panther and a snow leopard ,” Tooru answers. Suga says the same thing, unaware that Tooru has already answered. Hajime looks at him, and hides behind a stretch of trees to shed his clothes. He stuffs his clothes into the bag and grabs Tooru’s as well. He shifts, and grabs the bag in his front claws. He comes back out and growls at Tetsurou and Daichi.

“That’s our cue,” Tetsu mutters, and they both disappear behind trees. Hajime turns to Tooru.

“ My Stars, how can you be so absolutely gorgeous? I didn’t think you could get any prettier, but then you did ,” Hajime rumbles. Tooru ducks his head under his praise, and Hajime rests his tail on his and nuzzles his snout. Tooru purrs appreciatively. There’s a choking noise and Hajime glares at Tetsurou, now shifted and ready to go. Daichi appears a moment later. Daichi crouches for Suga, and Tetsu follows his example for Kenma. Tooru and Hajime help push them up, and they cling to their hides. With everyone situated, Hajime soars into the air, the others swiftly following them (well at least Tetsu and Daichi, Tooru had difficulty taking off, but once they started flying he was fine).

“ Like being a bird, but not! ” Tooru says over the wind, and Hajime roars in laughter.

“ I’d say closer to not! ” Tetsu says, mirroring Hajime’s laughter.

“ You’re right, it’s much bigger! ” Tooru agrees, and Daichi joins in on the laughter.

“I’ve always wanted to fly, but I feel slightly terrified right now!” Suga screams. Kenma looks petrified, flattening himself to Tetsu’s back.

“ In Vackla, they have a sport for dragon’s with human mates and courtmates! It a flying race, and the mate flies in a saddle on their back! We should probably get a few, ourselves!” Daichi says.

“ Great idea, but are you insinuating something? ” Tooru teases slyly.

“ O-of course not! ” Daichi says, flustered.

“ What was that? I couldn’t hear you over your giant crush on my brother !” Tooru says cheerfully. Tetsurou laughs.

“ What are you laughing at? You’re the same way! ” Hajime says. Tetsurou pouts.

“ Is it really that noticeable? ” Daichi asks, almost too quietly to hear over the roar of the wind.

“ It’s always that noticeable to everyone except the crush, and the crusher ,” Tooru says,” Well, most of the time .”

“ Are you insinuating something? ” Tetsu teases with a grin. Tooru huffs, and Hajime laughs, brushing his wings against Tooru’s. They ride the rest of the way in silence, and touch-down just before the forest line ends in a small clearing. Tooru, Hajime, Tetsu, and Daichi shift behind the cover of the trees, and come out changed.

“Looking sharp Hajime, or at least Iwaizumi, now that we’re leaving,” Suga said.

“Thanks,” Iwaizumi answered, buttoning shirt. Oikawa walked over and draped himself across Iwaizumi’s shoulders. Iwaizumi turns his head to kiss his hair, and Oikawa slips his arms around his bicep, and Kuroo shakes his head. They all walk the rest of the way and separate at the edge of the forest, since Daichi starts work really early, and Kuroo wanted to scout the area of where he worked. Iwaizumi easily agrees to escort all three brothers home safely.They make their way, Oikawa and Suga making idle chat, Kenma and Iwaizumi content to sit in silence. Finally, they reach the residence, and Oikawa runs right up to the door announcing ‘we’re home!’ and slipping his shoes off. They all follow him into the kitchen, where they find Maho, two people Iwaizumi has never seen before, and a dragon he’d never thought he’d see again.

“ HOLY SHIT, DUDE! IT’S YOU! WHERE THE HELL ARE DAI AND TETSU?” Bokuto screams at him in dragon tongue, jumping up for a hug. Iwaizumi opens his arms in invitation, and they hug.

“ Dude, I never thought I’d be seeing you again! Last I heard, you were off going on adventures around Hastil! ” Iwaizumi answers back.

“Guys!” Tooru complains,” I can’t understand you in this form!”

“Go change, we need to go soon,” Iwaizumi tells him.

“Can I at least do my hair?” Tooru pouts.

“You have forty-five minutes. Go,” Iwaizumi answers. He leaves, and Bokuto raises an eyebrow at him.

“Why does he smell like you?” Bokuto asks him.

“Oookay! More on that later! Moreover, who are these people, and how are you doing?” Iwaizumi gestures to Maho.

“Fine, now that you brought my sons back home safe, albeit a day late,” Maho answers briskly. Iwaizumi fidgets.

“It was me and Kuroo’s hatching day,” he says in a small voice.

“Oh, right I forgot about that! How did it go? Was the Hunt good?” Bokuto asks.

“I caught a bear,” Iwaizumi grins,” I wanted to impress Tooru.” There was a moment of shocked silence.

“A bear seriously? With your bare hands? What the fuck? Did you at least make a joke about it?” Bokuto says.

“Hell yeah I did,” Iwaizumi answers.

“I wish I could have been there!” Bokuto exclaims.

“I got it on video,” Kenma says, coming into the kitchen in fresh clothes.

“I would find it hard to believe, but then again, Koutarou is courting me, so,” says a man at the kitchen counter. Iwaizumi turns to him to get a good look. He smells of new paper and blueberries. He was wearing a simple outfit, a pair of white jeans, a green cardigan, and a white scarf. He had wavy black hair, and sharp green eyes.

“Nice,” He says to Bokuto. He extends his hand over the table.

“Iwaizumi,” he says, by way of greeting. The man nods to him.

“Akaashi Keiji, Owlborn,” he says, firmly shaking his hand. Iwaizumi offers his hand to the other woman sitting at the table. She smells of honeycomb and chocolate, and has sharp gray-blue eyes, long black hair, with a beauty mark on her chin. She is wearing a black ruffled skirt with a shimmery purple blouse tucked in. She takes his hand in a strong firm grip.

“Kiyoko Shimizu, fae,” she says, and Iwaizumi nods.

“Can I see the video?” Bokuto asks.

“What’s a video?” Iwaizumi asks curiously.

“Dude, it’s the coolest thing, it’s something that shows you stuff that has already happened so you can remember it,” Bokuto answers him excitedly,” Show him Kenma!” Kenma nods, and pulls out the black triangle (Oh, so that’s what that’s for) and taps on it for a second. Then he turns it their way, and right there, plain as day is Iwaizumi coming out of the woods with the bear across his shoulders. Iwaizumi’s eye’s widen as he watches the whole scene over.

“Whoa! That’s awesome! And are you courting that one guy?” Bokuto asks.

“We just started about two days ago,” he nods nervously, casting his eyes towards Maho. Maho’s mouth quirks, and she continues to sip her drink, staring straight at him. He shudders.

“Hm,” Akaashi says thoughtfully. Oikawa chooses this time to pop down the stairs. Iwaizumi looks up before he even comes through the door, noticing his scent getting stronger. He’s wearing grass-green skinny jeans, knee-high white boots, and a long off white sweater that reaches the ends of his fingertips when lets his arms hang to his sides.

“I’m ready!” he says.

“Do you have your homework?” Iwaizumi asks with a smirk.

“Uhhh...meet me at the door!” He says, dashing up the stairs. Iwaizumi shakes his head.

“Come and visit us, seriously,” Iwaizumi says to Bokuto.

“Of course!” he answers cheerfully. Iwaizumi taps his forehead to his and offers goodbyes to the other residences (giving Maho a nervous look) and heads to the door just as Oikawa reaches it.

“Ready?” Iwaizumi asks him.

“Yep!” he answers, holding up a black bag. Iwaizumi nods, and opens the door for him.

“How well-mannered of you!” Oikawa says.

“ It’s only what you deserve, because you’re so frighteningly beautiful ,” he says in dragon tongue.

“What did you say?”

“Shut up, dumbass.”

“Geh! Meanie Hajime!”

♡                               ~                             ♡

Iwaizumi adjusted his sleeves for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. His supervisor had been showing him the ropes all morning, and he had just made his first successful sale, earning a thumbs up his sleepy-eyed, curly ravenette of a co-worker. His name was Matsukawa Issei (who smells of rain and freshly cut grass), and Iwaizumi made fast friends with him, quickly realizing he was a part of the magical community. Apparently, he was a dream eater, and made money on the side by eating people’s nightmares. When Iwaizumi told him he was a dragon, he looked at him in surprise, and asked him ‘why here of all places?’ ‘I just like jewelry’ he told him honestly. He shook his head and began to show him how to use the register.

“Hey big guy, it’s almost lunch break, you gonna eat something?” Matsukawa asks him. Iwaizumi looks at him bewildered.

“What’s lunch?” he asks him. Matsukawa stares at him for a second.

“It’s like a meal in the middle of the day,” he answers with a sigh,” Do dragons not have those?”

“Uhm, no. That’s actually really odd,” Iwaizumi says. Matsukawa laughs.

“Well, we have thirty minutes to do something. Are you gonna go somewhere?” he asks. Iwaizumi thinks of Oikawa. He can smell him faintly, and he hasn’t seen him in so long...then an idea strikes him.

“We can leave, right?”

“Of course.”

“Wanna go meet my courtmate? He’s in the cafe next to us.”

“...Why the hell not?”

“Cool,” Iwaizumi says, and they clock out for lunch (after tell their supervisor they’re taking their lunch break) and head next door. Oikawa doesn’t look up from his booth spot when he enters, too focused on the large book in front of him, and Iwaizumi makes a beeline for the table, beckoning for Matsukawa to follow him. Oikawa finally looks up when Iwaizumi sits next to him, and Matsukawa in front of them.

“Who is this?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. Iwaizumi wraps him into a hug before he answers him.

“My co-worker, Matsukawa Issei, he’s a dream eater,” he says inhaling his scent.

“Oh really? I’ve never met a dream eater before! I’m Oikawa Tooru, a shifter! Nice to meet you! I would shake your hand, but Iwa-chan’s got me trapped, and he’s probably not coming off,” Oikawa says. Matsukawa looks at him for a few moments, then breaks into a smile.

“I feel kinda like a third wheel here. I’m gonna call my boyfriend to join us, if you don’t mind,” Matsukawa said.

“Okay Mattsun!” Oikawa agrees. Matsukawa blinks at him for a second, shrugs, and pulls out a different black rectangle and taps on it for a moment.

“Cool. He’ll be here in five minutes with money. I wanted some coffee,” Matsukawa says.

“I recommend their frappe, it’s really good,” Oikawa chirps.

“I’ll pass, I don’t like sweet things, but be sure to recommend it to my boyfriend, he has such a sweet tooth, it’s not even funny. He just finished culinary school and opened up his own bakery, and I’ve taken to calling him ‘My creampuff’,” Matsukawa says.

“Talking about me Issei? I’m flattered.” Iwaizumi looks up to see a tall man (why are they all so damned tall?) with pink hair, paler skin, and laughing brown eyes, smelling of creampuffs (ironically) and gram crackers. He wears a white apron that says ‘Seijou’ in turquoise, some jeans, a turquoise blue t-shirt, and a black metal loop in his lip.

“Of course, my creampuff, why wouldn’t I talk about you?” Matsukawa jokes.

“Oh, but Issei , I haven’t even introduced myself!” he jokes back, sliding next to Matsukawa,” My name is Hanamaki Takahiro, nice to meetcha!” Iwaizumi gives him a nod, and goes back to smelling Oikawa’s neck. Oikawa takes it all into stride, and adjusts himself so he can shake Hanamaki’s hand.

“Oikawa Tooru! And this leech here is Iwaizumi Hajime,” he says cheerfully. Iwaizumi grumbles, but chooses to ignore his comment.

“Hey babe, guess what?” Matsukawa says, nodding to Tooru.

“What?” he asks.

“He’s a shifter too.”

“ What do you mean too? ” Oikawa screeches. The cafe goes silent for a second, and he throws the staring cafe-goers a winning smile. They turn away, and he turns back too Hanamaki.

“I-I’ve never met another one before!” he says nervously.

“Me neither, honestly,” Hanamaki says, brown eyes boring into him,” but we can talk after they go back to work, yeah?” Oikawa nods.

“And he’s a dragon,” Matsukawa says,” They’re courtmates apparently. Did you know dragons don’t have lunch?”

“They don’t?” Hanamaki asks.

“Nope, and I find the idea slightly weird,” Iwaizumi says, finally coming up to look at them.

“And the infamous ‘Iwa-chan’ shows himself!” Matsukawa says. Iwaizumi kicks him under the table.

“Well, I’m gonna go get us something, you guys want anything?” Hanamaki asks.

“Milk bread from your bakery,” Oikawa says immediately.

“How long have been wanting to say that?” Iwaizumi asks him.

“Since the word ‘bakery’ was mentioned,” Oikawa says. They all laugh and Oikawa pouts.

“I was being serious!” Oikawa protests.

“I’ll tell you what, you come over later, and I’ll make you your own batch,” Hanamaki laughs. Oikawa looks pleadingly at Iwaizumi.

“After my shift,” Iwaizumi sighs. Oikawa cheers.

“Anything else?” Hanamaki asks, shaking his head.

“Uhm, more frappe? It’s really sweet, I recommend it. I would pay for it, but I’m a broke college kid,” Oikawa says sheepishly.

“I wouldn’t have let you pay even if you tried,” Hanamaki says, waving his arm.

“Thanks, Makki!” Oikawa says. Hanamaki looks at him, then Matsukawa.

“I got one too,” Matsukawa shrugs,” Apparently I’m now ‘Mattsun’.” Hanamaki laughs at that, squeezing his shoulder, and walks off to the counter. Iwaizumi looks at the clock. They’ve gotten fifteen minutes. Hanamaki comes back with two frappes, a black coffee, and a large turkey sandwich, which he splits between him and Matsukawa.

“So, Issei mentioned Iwaizumi was his co-worker in his text, and that you lived around here, but I’ve never seen either of you,” Hanamaki says.

“I own the forest territory next to this town and I just visited for the first time not to long ago,” Iwaizumi says.

“Wow. That’s a lot of territory for one dragon,” Matsukawa remarks.

“Me and my two brothers share it,” Iwaizumi shrugs.

“Sweet Mother of Dreams, there’s more of you?” Matsukawa says.

“Four, including myself are currently in the area… as far as I know,” Iwaizumi responded. Hanamaki whistles.

“What about you?” Matsukawa gestures to Oikawa.

“Either of you heard of Maho?” Oikawa asks.

“Of course? Who hasn’t?” Hanamaki asked.

“I’m one of her adopted children,” Oikawa shrugs.

“Ohhh, that makes a lot of sense!” Hanamaki says,” She is really protective over all of you.” Oikawa shrugs again, reaching over to steal some of Hanamaki’s turkey.

“Hey!” he protests, and Oikawa grins.

“Well I hate to say it, but our time’s up. You guys gonna be okay here?” Matsukawa asks.

“They’ll be fine,” Iwaizumi says, untangling himself from Oikawa, getting up and stretching,” As long as I can smell him.”

“Hot damn,” Oikawa and Hanamaki say at the same time. They look at each other for a second.

“Almost as good looking as Issei!” Hanamaki says, and Matsukawa lets out a resigned sigh. Iwaizumi shakes his head, kisses Oikawa on the cheek, and leaves.

♡                               ~                             ♡

When Matsukawa and Iwaizumi finally got off of work, they met Oikawa and Hanamaki (apparently he had taken the day off and left the bakery to his employees, because he could) outside of the coffee shop, and started to walk down to their place (which was above Hanamaki’s bakery, conveniently). When they reached it, somebody was just flipping the sign on the door to ‘closed’, but opened the door when he saw the group. He was young, with flat back hair, pale skin, sleepy eyes, and smelled of tangerines and freshly whipped cream. He was wearing an outfit similar to Hanamaki’s, except smaller.

“ Why did you leave us to fend for ourselves during the lunch rush ?” the boy asks. Hanamaki claps his hands together.

“Sorry Kunimi! I really am! And I can explain later, but have you guys finished putting away all the kitchen stuff?”

“No, we haven’t even started,” Kunimi said indignantly. They followed him inside, and Hanamaki rushed into the kitchen. A moment later, another man was pushed out of the kitchen. He smelled a bit like pumpkin and freshly stirred earth. He had spiky hair that reminded Iwaizumi of his barbed tail, brown eyes, a skin a few shades closer to his and Matsukawa’s, and a nervous energy.

“Oh! Hello!” he said,” Who are you?”

“Iwaizumi,” Iwaizumi said, and pointed to Oikawa,” Oikawa Tooru.”

“Kindaichi Yuutarou! Nice to meet you! And because I’m sure Kunimi didn’t bother to introduce himself,” ‘he didn’t’ Matsukawa said,” His name his Kunimi Akira!”

“Nice to meet you~!”Oikawa exclaims.

“Kindaichi is a Thunderbird, if you can believe it, and Kunimi is a Fae,” Matsukawa says,” Guys, Iwa-chan here-” Iwaizumi glared at him,” is a dragon, and Oikawa is a shifter and his courtmate.”

“Another shifter?” Kunimi says.

“A dragon? An actual, real life dragon?” Kindaichi squeaks,” Do you have a hybrid form? Me and Akira have been arguing over it since like, forever!”

“Uh, yeah,” Iwaizumi says.

“Can I see it?” Kindaichi prompts.

“Waitwaitwait-hold up!” Matsukawa says,” Hanamaki get out here! Iwaizumi is fixing to show his hybrid form!” Matsukawa holds up his phone just as Hanamaki slides out of the kitchen.

“Now I feel self-conscious,” Iwaizumi confessed, rubbing the back of his neck. Oikawa gives everyone a look.

“Hajime, I haven’t seen your hybrid form yet! Show me, won’t you?” he says leaning on the counter and propping his head up in his hands. Iwaizumi blinks, takes off his shirt (earning him a few whistles from Hanamaki and Matsukawa), and lets his dragon show through part-way through. His nails elongate, most of his skin get covered in green scales, his tail comes out, as well as his wings.

“Happy?” he asks Oikawa. Oikawa hums an affirmative.

“That is so cool!” Kindaichi exclaims.

“Careful, your fanboy is showing,” Kunimi says. Kindaichi pouts. Iwaizumi chuckles, shifts back and pulls his shirt back on.

“Hanamaki, give him my number so he can send me that,” Oikawa said.

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“Filthly.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Oikawa sneers,” Have you told Mattsu about your dirty little desire?”

“What desire?” Matsukawa asks.

“I’ll tell you later, I guess,” Hanamaki flushes,” And if you’re mean again, no milk bread.”

“Damn,” Oikawa muttered.

“Well, I’m leaving, Yuu, you comin’?” Kunimi says. Kindaichi nods, and they give Hanamaki their aprons and exit the store, locking the door behind them, as per Hanamaki’s instructions.

“Are they together?” Oikawa wonders out loud.

“No,” Hanamaki answers.

“Well they should be,” Oikawa snorts.

“Sometimes it’s scary how perceptive you are,” Hanamaki answers,” I’ll be in the kitchen if anybody needs me.”

“Nooo ‘Hiro! I need you!” Matsukawa says, dropping on one knee, putting a hand over his heart, and the other hand extended towards Hanamaki.

“Issei! My love! What would I ever do without you?” Hanamaki says, putting both hands over his heart.

“Raise our two, lovely children alone probably,” Matsukawa says.

“You would leave me to fend for myself and the kids all alone? How could you? I want a divorce!”

“Nooo ‘Hiro, forgive me!”

“Never!” And with that, Hanamaki disappeared into the kitchen, and Matsukawa picked himself off of the floor and gestured for them to follow him upstairs.

“What just happened?” Iwaizumi asked, bewildered.

“I have no idea, but I’m going to go along with it,” Oikawa answer, and they follow Matsukawa up the stairs.

♡                               ~                             ♡