Chapter Text
When Baekhyun gets home, Chanyeol’s not in the house, or in their backyard. He’s texted Baekhyun, about an hour ago, about being on his way and bringing food. His phone and the take out are set on the kitchen counter, the glass door leading out wide open. Mongryoung is gone too. Baekhyun puts his beanie back on and walks out.
He knows the forest behind their house like the back of his hand, doesn’t even need the light to walk with how big the moon is today. It was Chanyeol who wanted to live in a place where they could just walk out into the nature, take the dog out for a walk, be close to all the forest creatures. Baekhyun though soon learned to love it too, and they spend as much time out here as possible. He tries to listen to any strange sounds as he walks deeper, but there’s nothing, and he resolves to whistling to hopefully call at least Mongryoung back. He’s about to shout for Chanyeol too, a bit worried now, when the corgi appears, feet shuffling and a tiny bark as a hello.
“Is Chanyeol with you?” Baekhyun asks him, bending down to pet him, and Mongryoung barks again, pulls at Baekhyun’s leg pant. “I suppose that’s a yes,” Baekhyun huffs, a bit relieved, and follows his dog off the path.
It doesn’t take long after that to find Chanyeol, hunching over something. The whole area smells like fire.
“Did you--” Baekhyun starts to ask, without hello, but Chanyeol’s hand shoots up in the air as to shush him.
“Don’t be scared,” Chanyeol coos.
“I’m not scared, what on earth, Chanyeol?” And then there are sparks that Chanyeol frantically bats at as they fall to the leaves covered floor.
“Oh,” Baekhyun sighs. He drops to his knees on the ground, holding Mongryong by his collar and carefully shuffles closer.
“Please don’t tell me …” Baekhyun really should not be surprised anymore. “Another one?”
Chanyeol doesn’t look at him, eyes trained on the ground by his feet. “I found him when we were checking the new construction site by the mountain. It’s just a baby.” He’s practically cooing.
“It’s a dragon,” Baekhyun deadpans.
“Baby dragon, yes,” Chanyeol whispers, his hands coming closer to the tiny creature that is still exhaling smoke through its nostrils. Its scales are pitch black, his eyes big and shining in the dark, tiny pointy wings wrapped around his body. “I’m not sure what kind yet, but it’s clear it can breathe fire.”
“It’ll burn the house down,” Baekhyun says automatically.
“Shhh,” Chanyeol hisses, then his fingers finally encase the tiny creature. “I didn’t burn down the house.”
“Yes, Chanyeol, but you are human, and kind of trained by now.” Chanyeol finally looks at him, big puppy eyes and a pout on his lips, hands slightly outstretched towards Baekhyun, the dragon’s tiny head peeking out of his huge palms. Dragons don’t stay small for too long, Baekhyun unfortunately knows this all too well. It must really be a young one. “How did you even get here if you found it at work?” he asks, sighing, trying not to look at his pouting boyfriend and another deadly creature he’s trying to adopt. They already have a dog, why is that not enough?
“He got scared of Mongryoung when I put him down for a second, tried to escape and crashed into the glass door. I didn’t want him to burn the kitchen floor so I opened it eventually.
Baekhyun raises an eyebrow at hearing that, not sure Chanyeol can even see.
“He won’t be scared anymore. Look, he calmed down.”
The tiny dragon sneezes, and sparks fly again.
“I’ll work from home until he’s better at the fire thing.”
“Chanyeol, getting better at the fire thing just means learning how to burn the house down at will.” The dragon sneezes again then mewls.
“He found me, he’s so scared too. I’ll find him a new home when he’s bigger, somewhere far away from humans. Maybe he could go live with Wolfgang.”
“Can’t all these dragons find someone else to babysit them?” At least Wolfgang was actually more aware of what he could do, and understood it’s not the best idea to flame Chanyeol. Baekhyun’s not sure about this one.
“I can’t leave him here,” Chanyeol simply says.
Baekhyun sighs once more. Chanyeol grins, and he sure knows Baekhyun well. He knows he’s won already.
“Yes, Toben, you have a home for now!” he says excitedly to the dragon in his palms then leans over to peck Baekhyun on the lips. The dragon, Baekhyun shouldn’t be surprised it--he-- has a name already, hisses.
“Aww, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s just kissing. Baekhyun won’t hurt me, or you,” Chanyeol soothes him.
“Unless you hurt me,” Baekhyun says, but there’s no strength it it. “Let’s get back.”
Chanyeol nods, stands up and proceeds to trip over the first root sticking out of ground. “Uhm,” he says, and Baekhyun sighs. “My hands are kind of full,” Chanyeol points out. “And you know I’m still not good with floating fire.”
Baekhyun knows that, even if Chanyeol has made amazing progress over the years. When Baekhyun met Chanyeol six years ago, he was a complete disaster, burning all the plans the architecture students like him were forced to still draw by hand. He’d spent days working on them then destroyed them just because of stress of deadlines. He was always smelling of smoke. Baekhyun didn’t understand how the whole world didn’t know he could wield fire. Wield was also not really the word for it. The fire, if anything, controlled Chanyeol, and not the other way around. So he’s really come a long way since then, learning first to control the outbursts, keeping the fire in and not burning on the inside, then slowly to actually wield it. Baekhyun did all he could to help, still does.
Honestly, living in the middle of nowhere was not only cheap, property wise, it also had other advantages besides the beautiful country. The privacy, when Chanyeol tried to send fireballs across the nearby clearing, was a blessing. It’s clear by now too, why all these abandoned dragons flock to Chanyeol wherever he goes. Humans are slowly biting into more and more mountains under which they’d lived with their cities, mountain resorts, holiday retreats. Some dragons perish, some escape, tiny ones get lost while fleeing, eggs are buried, unable to be moved. Young, confused dragons, who apparently can smell Chanyeol and feel the fire in him, seek him out on instinct if he’s close enough, close enough sometimes being hundreds of kilometers. Baekhyun wishes dragon kindergarten was a viable business opportunity.
“Fine,” he says now, hoping no one is thinking of wandering the woods in the darkness, and flicks his wrist. The small ball of light rises in front of them, and Chanyeol sighs, in awe.
“I love your light,” he says and starts walking, Mongryoung milling about his legs, sniffing curiously. Baekhyun feels like he can hear the dragon kind of coo at the light too, all the way back.
Later that evening, they sit in the living room, a crate with a nest of blankets between them, the dragon sleeping peacefully. Baekhyun’s kept a tiny ball of light above his head all this time, because it seemed to have calmed him down, made him feel more safe. Baekhyun hates that it made his heart soften.
“It’s all so inflammable. If someone saw this, we’d never be able to pay for the insurance on this place.” Baekhyun notes, looking at all the fabric in the crate. But they’ve had this argument before, and he’s never won it. Their first rescued dragon, Amadeus, learned to somehow communicate with Chanyeol as he grew up. Ever since, he’s basically been the source of all their dragon lore knowledge. Apparently, nests are natural for baby dragons; they like to keep warm.
“He’s so cute,” Chanyeol only coos, a finger caressing the top of the dragon’s head.
“Only you,” Baekhyun shakes his head.
“You think Toben is cute too,” Chanyeol says gleefully, looking up and into Baekhyun’s eyes. Baekhyun doesn’t know what kind of face he’s making, but Chanyeol chuckles and pokes his cheek. “Not as cute as you, of course,” he says. Baekhyun rolls his eyes.
“So, Toben?” Baekhyun asks, and he hates he’s already calling the dragon that in his head. Why can’t they have normal pets only?
“Like Beethoven,” Chanyeol explains, eyes sparkling.
“Of course,” Baekhyun laughs. “You got a bit creative this time, though.”
“Well, you know Wolfgang was too long of a name when we were trying to stop him from burning our kitchen table.” Baekhyun would rather not be reminded. “Johann was a bit plain,” Chanyeol continues, “anyone could be called Johann. I think we did well with Chopin, and I considered Antonio, but it sounded kind of, well, flamboyant, and I didn’t want to, uhm amplify any dangerous abilities …”
Baekhyun starts laughing. “You don’t say.”
“Thank you,” Chanyeol says fast, suddenly, while Baekhyun continues to laugh. “I know it’s not the most ideal way to spend time together, raising another baby dragon.”
Baekhyun only shakes his head. “You were kind of a baby dragon too,” he says.
“But I was more handsome. And hot,” Chanyeol wiggles his eyebrows.
Baekhyun is laughing again as he leans over the crate and kisses Chanyeol.
“Were you?” he asks. Chanyeol hums into the kiss, and gently extricates the crate from between them, placing it on the coffee table and pulling Baekhyun into his lap.
“Do you need me to remind you?” he asks. Baekhyun only wraps his hands around Chanyeol’s neck, sucking a little on his bottom lip.
“No hanky panky in front of baby dragons, Chanyeol,” he says though.
Now they’re both giggling like idiots. Still, Chanyeol only pulls Baekhyun closer, and they settle better onto the couch, tangling together. Like this, in Chanyeol’s warm, these days fire safe embrace, Baekhyun almost forgets he once again could wake up to their tiny house in flames.