Chapter Text
Out of all the boys in the new school year, Ne Zha was the most excited to be there. Or rather, he had the most energy. On that Monday morning at the edge of their town, all the other boys grouped up and talked or played as they lamented the end of summer break. They all had an air of exhaustion to them, likely from having to wake up so early. Ne Zha was fairly used to the early wake up time, his family may have doted on him but they did not allow laziness to infiltrate the household.
As soon as the bell rang everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed inside. It seemed that before, no one had noticed the demon boy, but once in the hallway, they spotted him walking along. The hallway was loud, filled with the chatter of friends reunited, shouts, laughter, and of course, gossip. Their whispers were never truly all that quiet, Ne Zha noticed, they merely held a hand to their mouth as they discussed his presence. A part of him suspected they did that on purpose, that they wanted to somehow shame him for their dislike of him. Ne Zha acted like it never bothered him. He held his chin up and his hands in his pockets as he sauntered along, casually glancing at the classroom doors in an uninterested search for his first class.
His usual attire was considered unusual in a school, no shoes, only a vest on and the same old, loose, fire printed pants he’d owned all his life. Entirely unusual indeed. His mother, Lady Yin, picked out a more fitting outfit for him to wear the night before. It held true to Ne Zha’s typical style, consisting of red and brown, while not looking so old. He kept the vest, a long sleeved shirt underneath, and regular jeans that were just long enough to cover his red and black shoes. The one thing that remained entirely the same, and that his mother refused to do differently, was the twin buns in his hair. Those were done extra nicely and with new ribbons that had gold trim on them. Overall, Ne Zha was put together and already regretted begging to go back to school.
It really didn’t matter all that much to him if he did well in any of his classes or if he even showed up at all, he only wanted an escape from the old routine back home. He finally found his class on the second floor, the door marked with the same room number on his schedule. With a minute or so to spare before he entered, Ne Zha took a breath. It wasn’t often that he found himself unsteady, such a thing was so rare in fact that it seemed a foreign feeling to him, and he hesitated with his hand on the door.
“Well, this is it,” Ne Zha muttered. He gripped the door handle and turned it, “I’m back in school for good this time.”
***
“Ao Bing, come here,” Ao Guang asked of his son. For the first time in quite a while, he was in his human form. The Eastern Dragon King stood tall, towering at a staggering six and a half feet tall, his shoulders were already broad but made wider by the heavy armor he wore, and his long white hair flowed behind him as though there were a breeze in the cavern.
Ao Bing approached and looked up at his father. By all means, he looked like the man before him but was still a young dragon compared to him. Particularly, Ao Bing’s horns were much smaller, at thirteen years old, they were hardly beginning to grow and were a very light blue at the rounded ends. Even in his dragon form, he was still tiny, hardly half the length of the next youngest dragon in the cavern and his scales were still soft in many places.
“You’re getting older, son,” his father said. Ao Bing couldn’t quite feel it though, looking up at Ao Guang, it seemed as though he would forever be small compared to him. “I know you want to leave this cavern, I promised you that one day you could.”
Before Ao Bing had the chance to respond, his father motioned toward a shallow pool of water. It turned a vibrant blue before spiraling up in a glittering spout that stretched out toward Ao Guang’s open hand. The sparking droplets were oddly fascinating and seemed to disappear as soon as they touched the dragon king’s palm, though, Ao Bing noticed that they didn’t simply vanish, they slowly formed into a delicate bottle that curved like a rain drop and was capped with a beautiful sapphire stone in the shape of a cork. Inside the bottle was the same vibrant blue water that had been in the small pool. The shimmering spout then slowly returned to its original color and snaked back into the pool.
Everything about it was fascinating and confusing. Ao Bing’s eyes trained on the bottle while his father closed his hand around it. “What is that for?” Ao Bing asked.
“This will finally allow you more freedom outside of the palace,” Ao Guang explained. He offered the bottle to his son, careful not to drop it as it was even more delicate than it looked. “Shen Gongbao brought this a few days ago, a potion to make anyone who drinks it pass as a human.”
Ao Bing’s eyes lit up and a smile spread across his usually stoic face. He lifted the crystal-like glass to his eye and peeked into the bottle, the blue liquid inside it wasn’t only vibrant, it shimmered and swirled on its own. The young prince found himself entranced by it and imagined all the things he could do and the places he could see with the potion that was in his hands. Like before, he could almost feel the wind in his face, taste the salt of the sea, smell the warm grass, and hear the people in villages and towns and cities alike as they lived their lives in the freedom of the surface.
It excited Ao Bing and he handed the bottle back to his father. “Does this mean we can go out more?”
He was met with a nod and his smile widened into a look of absolute delight. “There is one more thing,” Ao Guang said, dismissing the bottle and sending it floating gently back to the pool of water. “After discussing it with Shen Gongbao, we have decided that, as long as you are vigilant and careful, I am willing to allow you to attend a school on the surface.”
With that, Ao Bing’s beaming face gave way to excited laughter and he threw himself into his father’s arms. “Thank you, father!” he exclaimed, overjoyed.
The interaction was already far from the norm for them, but Ao Guang allowed the tender moment to envelop him and his son and he hugged Ao Bing back. It was a rare sight to see the young dragon prince so excited and his father did not dare ruin that for him as he delighted in the news.