Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Good morning Team Leader.” 

Kim Rok Soo nods a greeting to Kim Min Ah as he steps into the office. He walks to his desk, a slump to his shoulders as he hides a yawn behind a hand. 

“Did you stay up late reading again?” Kim Min Ah asks, a knowing smile on her lips. “Let me guess…4am?”

Kim Rok Soo stifles another yawn. “I wanted to finish my book. I’m going to start the next one tonight.” 

Birth of a Hero. The book that kept Kim Rok Soo up past 4am last night. A series following the adventures of Choi Han as he fights against forces trying to take over the continent. He finished volume 5 over his break, and plans to start on the 6th after work ends. Choi Han and his fellows only just got swept up in the tides of war. 

“Anything I missed while I was out?” Kim Rok Soo asks. 

“No, sir!” Jung So Hoon says. “It’s been an unusually quiet week. Maybe the monsters were taking a break with you?” 

“Hah!” Kim Rok Soo barks out a short laugh just as Jung So Hoon adds on: “Tell them they can stay on vacation.”

It’s just then that the low whine of alarm sirens slice through the air. Everyone in the office looks up, startled. This specific alarm signifies an unknown threat, one reserved for the most dangerous of monsters. Red lights flash through the glass panes of the building. Already, panicked shouts can be heard outside. 

“Unlucky bastard.” Kim Min Ah sighs, throwing a punch at Jung So Hoon’s shoulder. “You just cursed us all.”

𓆩♡𓆪

Kim Rok Soo has the worst luck. After coming back from a relaxing break, he’s thrown straight into battle. A fight against a monster never seen before. With the body of a dragon, and the majestic head of a lion, the Lion Dragon cuts an imposing figure over Seoul. Its talons score deep marks into the ground, cutting through flesh like butter. When it opens its maw, beams of energy tear through the air, leaving not even a speck of dust in its wake. 

His eyes are unwavering as he takes in the entire fight. Looking, scanning, searching, for a weakness. For the second time in his life, he feels despair. There are no openings. Too many people have fallen. The guild in charge of the area has already fled, something that makes Kim Rok Soo laugh sardonically. Does humanity not learn from its mistakes? It’s a situation that panned out exactly like the fight against the Grade 1 monster, when his old team sacrificed themselves to keep it at bay. 

He looks around. His current team is still hanging on. They’re injured, he notes. Kim Min Ah is down on a knee, only holding herself up by the tall stone spear she grips between white knuckled hands. Jung So Hoon lays on crumbled concrete, the only sign of life the staggered rise and fall of his chest. The others are no better, blood and exhaustion weigh down their bodies. In the face of such a monstrous power, how can one believe they will overcome? 

Kim Rok Soo closes his eyes. He breathes in. He can picture Lee Soo Hyuk’s smiling face, Choi Jung Soo’s determined one. The image is recorded, imprinted, in his mind, despite his desire to forget. To push those records away. 

He breathes out. “Damnit.” Kim Rok Soo opens his eyes. He can feel himself sliding into Lee Soo Hyuk’s shoes. It’s like a weight that falls onto his shoulders like a blanket. Yet it’s surprisingly calming. A sense so wrong that it feels right . 

“Everyone, pull back! Retreat to the nearest base. Notify the Command of everything we’ve discovered. Kim Min Ah, you’re in charge.”

Rounds of affirmation ripple through the ranks. His team members pull themselves up and begin to hurry away, nursing their wounds. 

“Team Leader, what about you?” Kim Min Ah asks, hesitation in her step. 

“Don’t worry about me.” Kim Rok Soo says, looking at his team members’ retreating backs. Kim Min Ah’s eyes are wide with worry. “I’ll follow behind in a bit.”

The words sound empty in his mouth, but they do the trick. 

He doesn’t make it a habit to lie, which is why Kim Min Ah nods trustingly at that. She turns around and starts barking out orders, telling his team to hurry up. The faster they can inform Command about this monster, the better off they’ll be.

Only when they’ve disappeared behind the mounds of wreckage and destroyed buildings, does Kim Rok Soo finally turn around. He looks up. The Lion Dragon is there, kneeling, black smoke slowly seeping from its sides. There’s a gleaming opening in its chest, where a shining white heart sits. Its weakness. It must be, no, has to be. Everything Kim Rok Soo has observed till now leads to this. 

The ground rumbles. The Lion Dragon is charging up another energy beam, glinting red frothing  between steel fangs. 

Kim Rok Soo drinks it all in. Sirens blare in the background, untamed fires flare around him, and the earth beneath his feet cracks and crumbles. Then, the world stops. Or rather, the world stops and he continues to move. It’s blissfully silent. He can feel his body collapsing like the earth. Instead of pain, a wave of peace washes over him at this moment. 

A snap, and his leg breaks. A twist, and his arms throb, a mess of bone and blood. 

The last thing Kim Rok Soo sees is glittering black eyes, a widening red maw, and the white, white shine of a heart. 

𓆩♡𓆪

The first thing Kim Rok Soo sees is inky darkness. ‘Am I dead?’ He thinks so. It should be so. 

As if to test it, he tries to move. But the space he’s in is cramped. His body is strangely contorted, and there isn’t an inch of breathing space. He wriggles again, and this time, he can feel something give. He moves a third time, putting more strength into it. There’s a gentle cracking sound, and all of a sudden he’s hit with noise light scent . It washes over him like a wave, and he feels overstimulated, not ready for the sudden onslaught of…everything.

The shock of it makes him jerk in surprise, and whatever it is that has him trapped splits open and has him spilling out in an ungainly tangle of limbs. 

An excited gasp. 

Kim Rok Soo raises his head to the noise. Eyes blinking furiously against the light. When his vision clears, he’s greeted by the smiling face of a young boy. 

“You’ve finally hatched!” The boy says, his smile full of teeth and his blue eyes shining with glee. 

‘Hatched?’ Kim Rok Soo thinks. He looks down. Instead of hands, he sees paws. Red scales coat his limbs, and small knobbly claws flex against the scattered remains of a red egg shell. Something behind him thumps, and he jumps, startled. He looks behind him, and a stubby tail wags itself, as if saying hello. 

The boy giggles, as if amused. “It’s your tail, little dragon. Did it scare you?” 

Small arms reach out and gather Kim Rok Soo into a gentle hold. The boy’s hand carefully brushes off crumbled shell from Kim Rok Soo’s head. 

Kim Rok Soo is confused, and a thousand different thoughts rush through his mind at once. ‘Reincarnation? Transmigration? But as another creature? How is that even possible?’ 

The hand on his head moves in slow circles, comforting, a welcoming spot of warmth in Kim Rok Soo’s cold world of confusion. 

“Little dragon, what’s wrong?” The boy questions, eyebrows quirked in askance. 

Kim Rok Soo tilts his head up. The human holding him is young, he looks no older than ten. His features – sharp and pointed, although softened by age – are completely unlike that of a Korean. Silvery white hair frames his cheeks, and crystal-like blue eyes shine like ocean waves on a sunny day.

Was he reborn in a different world? This boy wasn’t speaking Korean, yet Kim Rok Soo had an inherent understanding of the language. He can feel the tail – his tail? – sway behind him.

The boy laughs. It’s light and happy and tinged with childish mischief. “Don’t think too much, you’ve only just hatched.” The hand continues to rub comforting circles on Kim Rok Soo’s head. The boy leans down, and rests his forehead against Kim Rok Soo’s. 

Kim Rok Soo finds himself staring into those deep blue orbs. They glow with laughter, crinkled at the corners in the form of a smile. The boy opens his mouth to speak. 

“My name is Cale Barrow. And you…are my dragon.”

𓆩♡𓆪

Chapter Text

It has been a year since Kim Rok Soo woke up in this world. And it was a different world, that of the Birth of a Hero , a fact that took a while for him to come to terms with. There were a couple of red flags signifying the fact, but after reading through some maps and geography books, many familiar names stood out to him – the Roan Kingdom of the Western continent, the Forest of Darkness. All key locations in the original novel. 

There were many things here that didn’t exist on Earth. Magic, for one, was one of the largest glaring differences. 

Magic. It flowed in his body, a simmering hot heat that lay just beneath his scales. It felt powerful, dangerous. But at the same time sluggish, as if when he reached out to grab it, it would slide away, just out of reach. 

Ah, and then the other glaring red flag. Him. Rather than a human, he was somehow now a dragon. Shiny red scales, snaking tail, gleaming horns and all.

This place he was born into was called the Dragon Slayer Village. A rather unfitting name if you ask him, considering dragons and humans coexisted here in peace. And peaceful it was. 

Humans went around the village, tending to crops, selling trinkets and baubles along the street. Little kids ran around, yelling and hollering between each other. It was so peaceful, Kim Rok Soo felt it wrong at times. It was such a stark change of pace from the constant worry of death in his original world. The world that he hoped was moving on without him. 

The village was beautiful, almost like a paradise. An underground city with towering cliffs surrounding all corners of the village, a warm glowing orb hanging from the cavern ceiling acting as the sun. During nighttime, the glowing yellow would turn to the silvery hue of the moon. Despite the artificial light, life grew naturally here. Or rather, it was more apt to say it thrived. Colorful fields of flowers surrounded their little town in the center. Some houses further out each had thriving crops and blossoming trees. 

He lets out a sigh. Yes, this must be what retirement feels like. An idyllic life, a complete foil to that of his previous one. That ever-untouchable slacker life, now in his hands! 

A weight settles next to him and a hand lands on his head, a familiar presence Kim Rok Soo now associates with comfort and warmth. It joins him on Kim Rok Soo’s perch on a stone rooftop, basking in the warm sun. 

“What are you doing, staring off into space again?” The voice is lilting and playful.

Cale Barrow. 

This is his human, the one who looks after him, cares for him, and indulges his lazy behavior. The one who makes this peaceful slacker life possible. Ever since Kim Rok Soo woke up in this world, Cale has been the one constant. Always by his side, soft words explaining how the world works, how the place they live runs, and how this little bubble of peace will be their future.

He is an orphan in this world, just like in the past. Cale is too, Kim Rok Soo quickly learned, when the newborn hatchling was introduced to Cale’s lonely abode. No one else there but him and a newly hatched dragon.

‘But not anymore.’ Kim Rok Soo has Cale now, something akin to a brother, and Cale has him. 

The thought of it brings unbidden memories to the surface. Lee Soo Hyuk always wanted Kim Rok Soo to call him hyung, didn't he? Choi Jung Soo wasn’t much better – Dongsaeng! Kim Rok Soo can almost hear his annoying voice. He quickly chases the thought out of his head. 

In this new life he was gifted, maybe he can learn to open up a little more. When the fear of losing someone the next day wasn’t such an all-consuming dread. Where the shattered earth of an apocalyptic world is nowhere to be found. This was a quiet, homely village, secluded from the rest of the continent. Here, life went on in its own sphere of idyllic peace.

He and Cale lived on the fringes of the village, in a small little hut just big enough for two. It’s not as if they were shunned or ostracized from the rest – the villagers weren’t unkind, but they didn’t go out of their way to include them either. It made things quiet, so Kim Rok Soo had nothing to complain about. 

“The two of us, against the world.” Cale once said. The words sounded silly coming from the mouth of a child, but Kim Rok Soo could see the longing in Cale’s forlorn gaze. The desire to prove himself, to belong . Loneliness may suit Kim Rok Soo, but Cale was different. 

He stretches, claws splaying out and tail shuddering in a small display of pleasure. He gently butts his head against Cale’s side – this kid stares as much as he does! But instead of staring off into space like Kim Rok Soo, Cale’s eyes are always focused on wherever there is life, wherever cheerful cries and abundant laughter fill the air.

Kim Rok Soo can see how Cale’s eyes are currently locked on a group of kids his age playing in the town square, running around and chasing each other with clouds of dirt getting tossed up in their roughhousing. He nudges Cale again, as if prompting him to go down and join them. Kids should play and have fun. 

Instead, Cale just shakes his head a little, silvery locks of hair casting a dark shadow across his face. “I’d just ruin their fun.” He sighs, casting his gaze away from the others and looking down at the dragon at his side. “But who needs them when I have you?”

Cale runs his fingers down Kim Rok Soo’s spine, making him let out a pleased chuff. Cale laughs and starts to hum a winding little tune, slightly off pitch. Kim Rok Soo thumps his tail, as if to keep Cale on beat. It doesn’t work. This kid is hopeless. 

There’s a reason why Cale is hesitant to join others his age. Although Kim Rok Soo thinks it’s a rather lame excuse to avoid socializing, who is he to judge? 

This horrible singer was actually the successor of the Dragon Slayer Village. He was always running around attending to duties. And Kim Rok Soo was his partner dragon, just as every successor before them were paired, dragon and human, friends and confidants. Starting from the founders of the village, the legacy passed down with each new leader. 

The First Dragon Slayer, Nelan Barrow, and his dragon Lord Sheritt. When Kim Rok Soo first heard the name Nelan Barrow, it gave him pause. Did the author of the books write himself in as an OC? It wouldn’t be much of a stretch, but did that mean this OC had any significance to the plot? No matter how much he thought it over, turning the idea round and round, he couldn’t come up with an answer. Well. No matter, he’d puzzle over it again soon. 

Despite the weight of responsibility on the both of them, something Kim Rok Soo personally scoffs at (him, leading a village? That was never going to happen if he had any say in it), Cale let Kim Rok Soo do as he pleased, responsibility be damned – he just seemed happy to finally have a family to call his own. 

Ostracized as Cale was from the rest of the village, having Kim Rok Soo at his side made the lonely weight of responsibility bearable. 

And, anyways, Kim Rok Soo isn’t going to let anyone order him around. He was reborn as a great and mighty dragon afterall, he could do what he wanted! 

Although seeing how much work Cale was caught up in on a daily basis, maybe Kim Rok Soo should step in to help a little? Just to repay the kindness Cale has shown up till now. Hmm. On second thought, Kim Rok Soo is still only one year old. Wouldn’t it be child labor if he was made to work? 

A sudden chill came over him. Was life so peaceful because he wasn’t old enough yet? He wouldn’t have to work when he was older, right…?

As if sensing his thoughts, Cale gently scratched Kim Rok Soo’s head. “It’s about time you learned to control your mana. You’re already one year old.”

Kim Rok Soo let out a pitiful mewl. 

𓆩♡𓆪

It turns out that he has no talent for mana control. A problem that vexed his teacher into pulling out her scales. A problem, which led to some unfortunate other problems. 

Although heir apparent of the village, Cale Barrow hadn’t always been. A couple years before Kim Rok Soo hatched, the previous successor was a young woman partnered with a fierce blue dragon. The two individuals were strong and even stronger together. 

The entire village thought of the two as their pride and joy. Its excitement stemmed from a couple hundred years of visible decline. The village was established over equality, but it was equality through power. If one could not stand toe to toe with the mightiest of beasts, then respect would not be given. The village failed to produce promising heirs, and the dragons turned their eyes away, sensing the weakness festering within. 

That was, until a young heir stared down a blue dragon in a battle of wills, and won. 

But an unfortunate accident outside the village walls brought an end to the promising pair. The girl was killed, and her blue dragon injured. Afterwards, the blue dragon left the village, and no one saw or heard hide nor scale of him again.

Cale was chosen shortly after. And despite showing potential, many couldn’t forget the previous successor and felt Cale couldn’t fill those shoes. Rather than challenge an older and stronger dragon as his pair, Cale wanted to raise the little red egg he’d found by a river. 

That little red egg was Kim Rok Soo, forgotten and abandoned like trash. But picked up and taken home like treasure. 

And now, Cale’s partner dragon couldn’t even control his mana. The news spread through the village, accompanied by words of ridicule and whispered insults. The gap between them and the villagers seemed to widen after that. A rapidly growing thorny wall birthed from derision and unhappiness. 

Kim Rok Soo growls when he hears someone pass by, curses on their lips, scorn in their glare.

“It’s alright.”

A hand strokes his back. Kim Rok Soo lets the growl die in his throat. 

“You’re still young. You have time to learn, I believe in you.” Cale smiles at him, patient as always. “And even if you cannot master it, you can always depend on me. Your hyung is very dependable, y’know?”

Kim Rok Soo chuffs in agreement. Yes, this is what slacker life is all about. Someone to pick up the slack after you. 𓆩♡𓆪

When Kim Rok Soo turns two and he’s able to speak his first words. The first thing he says to Cale is: “Call me Roksu.”

Cale smiles his signature smile. Eyes narrowed into crescents, lips quirked softly at the edges, dimples showing. 

Two hands lift him up from under his forelegs. Cale takes him and they spin in happy little circles. The world whizzes by, and Roksu feels himself going dizzily out of proportion. He’ll tolerate it just this once. 

“Roksu.” Cale says, as if testing the name on his lips. “Roksu.” 

𓆩♡𓆪

When Roksu turns five and Cale is fifteen, the two of them leave the village to gain experience. 

He is still terrible at handling his mana. Partly lack of effort and the other part because it truly did not cooperate. The village elders believe he will learn faster in real-life situations. Sometimes you have to kick them out of the nest to learn, right? Like baby birds learning flight, but in his case, a baby dragon. 

‘And it actually kinda works.’ Roksu thinks bitterly, as he and Cale run away from the umpteenth monster hounding their heels. He managed to send out a weak pulse of mana against the last monster. Supposedly, the spell was for fire magic, and the most he got was a wave of lukewarm heat. But, well, progress. 

If he wants to enjoy a slacker life, then it looks like he needs to be stronger. Even if it’s just to scare away these meddlesome monsters and get the elders off his back. 

The elders thought it appropriate to drop the two of them in the Gate to the Demon World. One of the Three Restricted Areas of the Eastern continent. It apparently was not an actual gate to the Demon World, or so they claim. It was supposed to be somewhat safe, but somehow they managed to wander into a nest of monsters. 

‘ These monsters sure seem like spawns from hell,’ he scoffs, as he avoids a wayward talon claw something sharp. Whatever it is, it’s attached to a squirming long tentacle. He didn’t care to look past that, making the wise decision to fly away. 

The real Demonic Gate lies elsewhere. He is told that it is a dragon’s duty, as well as the village’s, to keep an eye on it, lest demons break free. Luckily, it remains silent, as it has for centuries, since the White Star’s reign of terror. 

“Roksu, dodge!”

Roksu is shaken from his thoughts when a claw tipped tentacle grazes past his wings. Pain shoots through his body, and the tear in his wing throws him off balance. He careens towards the unforgiving ground, but a quick pair of arms catches him before he crash lands. 

“Are you okay?” Cale asks, voice labored with heavy pants. They’ve been running for a while now. 

“I’m fine.” Roksu says, although the throbbing in his wing doesn’t abate. 

Cale pulls a healing potion out of his spatial pouch. He turns a corner in the long tunnel they’re traveling through. Skidding to a halt behind a large cropping of stones, he pours the potion on Roksu’s wing. The injury knits itself back together, and Roksu can feel the immediate relief it brings with it. 

Seconds later, the monster comes crashing past, a tangle of polished claws and fangs. It follows their scent, and the sharp tang of blood in the air. It twists itself around, squirming wildly. Rocks turn to dust under its wild tentacles. The momentary pause gives Roksu time to take the monster in, in all its glory. Its body is that of a massive boar, ten foot long tusks pierce through its waving whip-like tentacles, six glowing red eyes locked on their prey. 

‘If this isn’t a demon, then what is?’ Roksu thinks to himself. He thought monsters were supposed to be more beastlike in nature, but this thing is closer to an abomination. 

It lets out an inhuman screech. Roksu can feel his bones rattle and Cale lets out a hiss of pain as he clutches his side. The ear-splitting vibrations probably don’t mix well with broken ribs. Roksu shifts in Cale’s hold, attempting to break free. “Cale, let me go. My wing is fine.”

“No, it isn’t fully healed yet.” Cale refuses, and tightens his grip when Roksu moves a little again. “Be good, Roksu, this hyung can handle it.” He only loosens his hold when Roksu stops moving around. One arm releases and grabs the sword that sits against his hip. 

“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Cale sets him down, tucked and hidden between broken rocks. 

Roksu has seen Cale fight multiple times now. Although young, he shows promise to become a swordmaster. He knows that Cale can win this fight, as long as nothing goes wrong. 

His thoughts seem to jinx it, though, as a stray whip sends Cale careening into the wall. The claw tipped whip of black cuts through Cale’s side like the bow of a ship through water. The force of the strike shakes the already unsteady cavern. The ensuing cloud of dust plumes upwards, hiding Cale from view. But Roksu can taste the blood in the air, and sees how it turns the monster’s eyes hungry for more. 

There’s a weak cough from the center of the cloud of dust. Pebbles clink as they roll off the body lying underneath rubble. Cale struggles up, but falls back with a strangled yelp. The sharp eyes of a dragon can pick up every minute detail, despite the haze. Blood seeps freely out of the wound in Cale’s side, it is deep and raw, but it doesn’t seem like it struck any vitals. A touch of red stains his lips – ‘ an internal injury, probably from crashing into the wall .’ 

‘Not good.’ Roksu thinks. He turns his gaze to the monster. It stands unscathed, brimming with ravenous hunger. The scent of blood draws more monsters in, and Roksu can sense them creeping forward from the shadows, closing in on their location. It won’t be long until unwelcome company puts them at an even larger disadvantage.

If something happens to his human, then he can kiss his slacker life goodbye! Cale was the only thing standing between him and a village full of angry elders. It is only now that Roksu realizes just how much Cale means to him. Family . It doesn’t feel so foreign anymore. 

He tentatively tests his wings. A bit of pain when he flaps them, but it’s not so bad that he’ll crashland again. He takes to the air, and the monster immediately hones in on him. He zips past tentacles and spins around sharp claws. By the time he’s done dodging, he’s a bit out of breath, but exactly in the place he wants to be. The large boar’s head looms before him, six eyes reflecting a tiny dragon. The ivory white tusks reflect Roksu’s red scales, making them look like they’re dripping blood. 

He takes a deep breath in. It’s there. That hot red power that rests just out of reach. He reaches out, and it wavers as if teasing him. 

He tries again. He reaches down, down, down, further and further. Paws outstretched, he yanks and suddenly there’s a rush like nothing he’s felt before. It’s volatile, wild like an untamed beast. It feels foreign and it hurts it hurts . His insides are burning up like hot coals in a furnace, the heat blazes through him, leaving only charred remains behind. 

Distantly, he can hear his human say something. It’s weak and desperate, and Roksu can’t quite catch it over the roar of mana in his head, the rose gold energy bubbling out of his body like lava.

There’s something else there – another voice, soothing and smooth, not unlike a mother’s loving embrace. It gives Roksu that final push he needs to completely grab his power and grip it in his hands. His control is tenuous, and just a little bit more and he can–

Something snaps, and Roksu’s flimsy semblance of control is lost to the ensuing explosion of power. It leaves him so suddenly, that he’s left feeling like a dying ember of a flame. 

A wave of red-gold mana shoots out like an arrow. Raw and untrained, yet it strikes true. It pierces through the fleshy mass of tangled vines, through the skull of the boar’s body underneath, burrows itself through rib and sinew, and exits with one last pulse of power before slamming into the cavern wall.  

The monster shrieks. A painful howl of anger and fury. Then it collapses, a shapeless mass, melting into a pile of noxious slime and pointed bone. 

It’s dead. 

The wave of power emitted scares off the lesser monsters clustered around them, making them turn tail and flee in fear. A dragon’s strength is something to be feared–and that blast of energy served as a warning to those close enough to taste it.

The red mana surrounding Roksu recedes. Weakness takes over, and he’s barely held afloat by sluggish wings. His wings slow their flapping as he lowers himself. Warm arms catch him just before he can hit the ground. 

Cale’s body is shaking – or maybe it’s him? He can’t tell – tremors wrack his tiny body, and he twists uncomfortably against the building heat inside him. His vision swims before him, tinged red around the edges. It’s hot and it hurts and he hates pain–

Something wet lands on his nose, and it feels so cool that it makes Roksu breathless. Somewhere among the blurred mix of colors, a blend of white and blue come into view. More drops of liquid hit his face and he blearily wonders if rain in a cave is a thing.

The colors are accompanied by comforting words, almost too low to hear, whispered utterances of don’t worry you’ll be okay i’ll make sure of it and roksu keep your eyes open please listen just this once please please please–

Darkness takes over. 

𓆩♡𓆪

He dreams. 

He dreams of a spinning yellow orb of light that flutters around him like a friendly butterfly. It brushes against him teasingly, and under each touch he feels warmth bloom and spread through his body. 

It’s comforting, and the burning ache that sits in his bones slowly fades away. 

A voice sings to him, as light as the breeze. Lulling him into a deeper sleep, until not even a dream can disturb him. 

When Roksu wakes up, Cale is by his bedside. Dark circles sit under those blue eyes, making them look deeper than they actually are, almost murky blue, as dark as the depths of the ocean that escape the touch of sun. It gives Roksu pause – Cale’s eyes look almost dangerous . But the look disappears as soon as those ocean orbs land on Roksu. The dark is chased away like a fleeting dream, replaced by light and happiness and so, so much relief. 

“Never do that again, Roksu.” Cale says, and there’s a waver in his voice, something Roksu has never heard before. It frightens him, a little. It’s similar to that look in Cale’s eyes. That simmering, burning something . It’s not anger. It’s a desperate plea, fueled by love and something – something more that Roksu can’t quite place.

“Please.” And this time it’s weak, a plain display of a lonely child yearning for their family. “Don’t leave me.” 

The hands that embrace him are just as warm as the touch in his dreams, but the tears that drip down onto his scales are bitter and cold. 

He reaches up his paws to brush away those tears. The rivulets of water that run down Cale’s face. Cale laughs at his touch, but it sounds more like a sob. 

“I won’t. I promise.”

𓆩♡𓆪