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“Haven’t you been in a better mood lately”, Nene sighed, looking at the grinning man who was tapping his feet almost impatiently. The purple haired just hummed, before smugly looking at the girl. “Having someone come visit just for you feels good right? Someone really needing me feels super nice after all”, Rui spoke with his usual cat-like smirk, folding his left feet over his right while sitting on throne.
Nene felt shivers run down at her spine at that annoying smile. How could he say the stupidest things yet be one of the wisest, she never got to know that. “You know, you make the fact that the human is trying to defeat you sound a lot more romantic than it should be---”
“I will defeat you today, Dragon Lord!”
Well shit, the biggest pain in the ass was here. Nene irked at the sight of him and his blinding aura, and looking at his wide smirk made her even more annoyed. This human, given a title of a hero or something similar, kept coming to the dragon caves daily just to defeat the Dragon King with his small little puny hands. It would just be easier to kill this “hero”, but because of Rui’s interest in him that was apparently out of the question. Besides the human wasn’t actually interested in killing the Demon Lord, so he wasn’t a threat for anything else expect Nene’s sanity.
“Oh my, if it isn’t little rabbit--- My, what brings you here today? Have you finally fallen for me?” the smile became even more feline-like.
“Wha--- Oi wait a little, what part of me resembles a small rabbit? Everything about me is grand and amazing you know!” the blond human became flustered for a second, before forgetting the latter part of the line once he realized he was called a rabbit.
“Oh my, how cute. Hey, isn’t he cute Nene?” the dragon king giggled, which only received a revolted glare from the girl. “He’s ugly, your taste just sucks”, she simply commented, which received offended looks from both of them.
“I’m not ugly, that’s rude! Even today I styled my hair for an hour you know!”
“...Did you style your hair just to come here?”
“Oh shut up Dragon Lord! I need to look good in my victory you know!”
The two of them bickered continued bickering. “Argh, this is taking so long—can't you just leave already human? I need to do my work”, the girl grumbled, to which the human started laughing in a grandiose voice. Here we go again.
“I won’t leave without my victory--” he was drowned in minty flames. “Drag him outside, he’ll heal enough in 10 minutes to leave”, she threw orders at the empty air, but soon after that guards appeared who immediately started acting.
“You didn’t need to do that; I could’ve played with rabbit myself--”
“You didn’t finish your paperwork yesterday, did you?”
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“Aargh this isn’t working! I need to change my approach!” Tsukasa cried, hitting his head against the desk. The pink-haired girl, who had stuffed her cheeks full of cookies stared at him confused.
“Hm, change your approach? What in the world are you talking about?” She asked, swallowing very loudly.
“I need to think how to conquer them... Also swallow before you speak Emu, that’s gross”, the blonde spoke in an exaggerated tone before sharpening it to be more disciplinary, not that the pink-haired one cared for that.
In fact, she didn’t even hear the latter part, too focused on the first part. Tsukasa always left early in the morning, smirking widely and speaking how they were going to do it today. Even yesterday, he took an hour to finish his hair. He still came home downturned, speaking how they failed once again.
...Did Tsukasa have a crush on someone?
Ooh! To think her Tsukasa would grow like this, hehee!
“Conquer? Conquer hmm... Maybe if you show how amazing you are?” Emu tried to brainstorm, but she realized she lacked the skills to do that - so she grabbed another handful of cookies to munch on. “That won’t help! Besides I always show my beautiful poses to show how amazing I am, but he won’t even falter a little bit from them!” Tsukasa cried, and hit the desk once again.
Aah, Tsukasa showing his ego was a no-go huh? Emu tried thinking while she swallowed, when she got an idea. “Then then, what about hugging them?” she offered, jumping from her seat to lean over.
“Huh? That’s a stupid idea”, Tsukasa said in a rude tone, not believing what the other one was even offering. “No no no, once you hug their heart will go like badump, badump! They’ll be completely flustered!” Emu spoke gleefully, slamming her hand on the chest in the rhythm of the heartbeat noises.
“That’s still--” Tsukasa started arguing, before he realized that getting the demon lord flustered would make the dragonkin lose focus. “No actually, that’s a brilliant idea. I’ll test it tomorrow”, Tsukasa laughed gaudily. Emu smiled warmly at who she thought to be lovestruck fool trying to confess, and told her goodnight wishes before leaving.
The hero slept excitedly today too.
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Rui was getting more and more bored every day.
The Dragon Lord was of one the most brilliant titles in the world, as they ruled over the all-powerful dragonkin. Everyone wanted to see his dragon form - being called one of the most beautiful things in this world, at least once in their lifetime. When he overpowered the old Lord, Rui felt peace for the first time. Too much peace soon after - the only thing he does anymore is paperwork.
“Oi Nene, aren’t we getting close to finishing soon? The sun is rising up”, Tsukasa whined annoyedly at the papers, skimming over the text. How menial. “It’s your fault for slacking off yesterday”, she just reprimanded him, wanting to hit him. Well, before she could actually do it, a servant knocked on the open door. “General Kusanagi, we’ve received the reports from the northern mountains”, the servant spoke clearly, and after placing the letter to Nene’s outreached hand they left quickly.
“...The high-ranking soldiers in the norther mountains have embezzled the funds send there”, Nene clicked her tongue, and automatically outstretched her hand away, so Rui couldn’t get his hands on it and rip the letter to pieces. “Can’t we do that later though? They were already arrested, and paperwork won’t run away”, Tsukasa plead, folding his fingers like he was praying to the general.
“Excuse me? Rui, this is important, you can play with your experiments later--”
“Dragon Lord, today is the day I shall win against you!” as Nene was grumbling, she could hear the biggest annoyance many walls away – after all, dragonkin had heightened senses. But even with those senses, she completely missed the moment her Lord ran away towards the noise. And just like that, she accidentally ripped the letter that she was trying to protect just a moment ago.
“Hahaha, I can see you’re finally here Dragon Lord” The blonde boy laughed in overly flamboyant tone, to which the dragonkin simply chuckled. He took steps closer to the so-called hero, only to ruffle the shorter boy’s hair.
“I can see that little rabbit, how exciting. Well then, shall we play?” Rui took a step back, and that’s when Tsukasa decided to do his ultimate attack. Quickly with full force, he wrapped his hands around the other’s stomach.
Ah, he had read once that dragonkin were naturally warmer than humans now that he thinks about it. Tsukasa had forgotten about it, so it hit him completely by surprise. The warmth was welcome in the cold morning, and without realizing it the blonde-haired boy nuzzled against the dragonkin. Though if you asked him about that later on, he would’ve strongly refused having done anything like that.
Well, Emu’s idea did work like she had anticipated -- Rui couldn’t feel anything but his own rapid heartbeat and the smaller male tightly squeezing him. The dragonkin tried to push words out of his mouth, but all he could get out was mumbled noises. Ahh, he could feel his cheeks reddening.
Tsukasa quickly realized that he was getting side-tracked, so he turned his head towards the dragonkin, being kind of reluctant to get his arms off for some reason. “Heh, got you Dragon Lord”, the hero smirked. And looking at the blonde’s smug face, the dragon kin just thought that he wanted to kiss the smaller boy--- wait, what?
...Oh, Rui got it now.
While the Dragon Lord was having his own internal moment, Tsukasa realized that this was the best change he would get. He unwrapped his hands – which made him way more disappointed than it should make for some reason, to grab his sword that was hanging on his hip. Before he could unsheathe it from the scabbard though, he was frozen. Like literally. He was made into an ice sculpture just then and there.
“Haah, you two really are a pain”, the Dragon Commander appeared from the shadows, looking a little bit - just a tinies bit - proud of her work of art. Rui however, he didn’t even notice that Nene had appeared as he tried to calm his heartbeat. Ahh, the Dragon Lord felt like his heart was lit on fire. “Haha, how surprising... to think my heart could waver like this”, the dragonkin mumbled, softly touching his lips
“...The hell?”
“Fuwu, guess you’ve caught my heart, hero... Well then, two can play that game”
“Oh gross, I ended up hearing something I didn’t want to”
Nene sighed heavily, waving her hand at which the guards came running over. With simple head nod they realized what their general wanted, as they grabbed the frozen boy and started to move him. “Anyway Rui, don’t think you’re for real going to get away from your work.”
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“Soooo, did you win today Tsukasa-kun?”
“Don’t even mention it, ugh I almost had him but the little general girl froze me into an ice sculpture”
“Wait huh?”
“What?”
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Tsukasa climbed the hellish mountain that it took to get to the Dragon Lord’s cave, to where it was way too complicated to walk into. Goddammit dragons and their flying skills. As he made it to the entrance, his first thought was that he had finally started to hallucinate from dehydration. The cold cave was unusually warm, and the walls were covered in yellow and blue roses completely. You could barely make out the floor with the ridiculous amounts of petals that there were.
“On time as anticipated, my dearest rabbit”, Rui appeared from a passage deeper in the cave, looking smug as always. He was wearing for who knows what reason a proper morning suit, with his usual tail gone. Though he did still have his horns on top of his head, slenderly curved darkly purplish as always.
“Uh, did I come at a bad time? Should I return later?”, Tsukasa asked, looking around the cave nervously. Was he waiting for a date or something? Wait, why is his heart feeling so sunken? Was he getting sick perhaps? The dragonkin chuckled, turning to look at the hero with half-lidded eyes, at which Tsukasa got shivers. Seriously, he hoped he wouldn’t get too sick, or Saki wouldn’t allow him out of the bed for days.
“No no no, I was waiting for you”, Rui cleared quickly, to which Tsukasa confusedly pointed at himself with his right hand. The Dragon Lord smirked, and – wait when did he get so close – grabbed the blonde’s left hand. Before Tsukasa could even react, the dragonkin pulled it towards his mouth, and gave it a soft kiss.
Tsukasa tried forming words, but couldn’t find working ones. “Tell me my rabbit, what’s your name?” Rui warmly looked downwards, pulling the hand away from his mouth but still keeping in his own hand.
“Ah, Uhm, Tsukasa? I guess?” Tsukasa answered confused, with it coming out more as a question rather than anything. “Tsukasa, Tsukasa hmm... What a nice name you have, my dear little rabbit. Well then, you should call me Rui, my dearest Tsukasa”, the dragonkin snickered, holding the blonde’s hand little bit tighter.
What was going on? Did the Dragon Lord slip today while taking a bath or something? “...Right, Rui... haha... ha...”
The dragonkin looked extremely pleased with that, as he let go of Tsukasa’s hand.
“Well then”, Rui instead placed his hands on the shorter boy’s shoulders, as he slightly bended down to give a kiss on Tsukasa’s forehead. It was short and sweet, but the feeling lingered for hours to come.
“Guess the next step is making you mine, my dearest”
“Huh?” Tsukasa responded bewildered, his brain trying to figure out what had just happened. When it had finally solved the puzzle though, Tsukasa’s face light up, almost like a red rose blooming in the spring. “Wh-wh-wha”, Tsukasa stuttered, jumping backwards in surprise.
“Y-you--- Farewell Dragon Lord, I shall defeat you another time”, Tsukasa tried to gain his composure back to look cool in his posing, but it ended up looking quite adorably pathetic with the way he was completely shaking. Just as soon as he was finished, he quickly rushed towards the cave opening.
“Fuwu, I’ll make sure to catch you my treasure”, Rui muttered to himself, looking as the other person clumsily ran away.
Ah now thinking about it, isn’t this the first time he has actually left on his own?
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“Onii-chan, what’s wrong?” Saki asked the blonde boy, who had been making funny expressions throughout the evening, lost in his thoughts.
“Hmm? Ah it’s nothing, don’t mind me”, Tsukasa threw the question out with stupid laugh, which received puffed cheeks from Saki. “Obviously it’s not nothing, it has troubled you all day. So, what’s wrong?” Saki persisted, slightly leaning over the table they were sitting on. Tsukasa sighed in defeat, he really wasn’t able to refuse Saki.
“Someone I perceived as an enemy told me they would make me theirs, and kissed my forehead”, Tsukasa grumbled, touching his forehead on the spot he had been kissed on. He had expected them to feel rougher, but it was surprisingly gentle.
“Heeh, that so...” Saki spoke in low tone, clearly intrigued. “And so? How did you respond?” she asked, stars twinkling I her eyes. Tsukasa looked on the floor embarrassed, scratching his cheek. “I, uhh... I ran away I guess?” he looked everywhere in the room expect towards Saki, knowing the disappointed look she probably wore.
“That’s... well, not too surprising. So, when are you going to confess back?” Saki hummed nonchalantly, leaning back on the chair. Tsukasa stared at her dumbfounded, mouth left hanging open. “Wait onii-chan, are you serious? You’ve been thinking this and nothing else all day, being flustered till death and you still don’t know if you like them?” the blonde girl stood up surprised, leaning closer with the support of her hands on the desk.
“Look Saki, I get what you’re saying, I do, but...” Tsukasa answered with a sigh, but with his speech got clumsier and more awkward as he progressed.
“But what?”
“But... But I, there’s... no way?”
“You sure sound like you’re questioning yourself, onii-chan"
“That’s...”
With every passing syllable, Tsukasa’s face got clearly more red. When he finally got to the point where he couldn’t even open his mouth without making incoherent noises, Saki finally chuckled satisfied.
“You know the answer now, right?”
“...Mmh”
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Tsukasa took deep breaths, in and out, in and out. It had been five days since blonde boy last time visited the place, and Tsukasa practised so many times his lines over so it would be impossible to not to succeed. Or, at least he told he told himself that while practising, but now being close to the cave his knees felt like they were giving out.
Silently peeking through the cave’s opening, he couldn’t see anyone standing in the throne room. He left small nervous steps, taking few small steps while looking downwards. The Dragon Lord always appeared when he called for him, so wouldn’t it work now---
Before the blonde boy got to do that though, he noticed a large shadow appearing on the ground. Jumping back on reflex, Tsukasa could see the shadow belonging to no one expect the one he was searching for. More than that, for the first time the human actually saw the dragonkin’s wings.
The wings were quite enormous, as they were quite clearly larger than Tsukasa’s arm span. They were deeper purple just like the dragonkin’s horns, with the texture appearing to be leathery – Wait, wasn’t Tsukasa’s throat less dry just a moment ago?
“You came back”, the dragonkin whispered with a warm expression. “...Uhh, yeah. Did you expect I wouldn’t?” Tsukasa replied dumbfounded, which received nothing but a sweet smile in return. The hero stared at that awestruck for a while, before realizing that he was getting side-tracked and firmly looked away. “Anyways, I-I had something I wished to... discuss with you”, keep it cool Tsukasa, you practised this so many times. At that, the Dragon Lord’s attention was caught as he stared the hero’s face, hard to depict emotions from his face.
“...I, uhm...” come on you practised this.
I like you Rui , the sentence wouldn’t be hard to say. Come on now.
“I... I-I want to k-kiss you!”
Both of them went still with eyes wide open, though the reasons were very different. “Uhm, that’s not—I mean”, Tsukasa tried to fix the situation, but ended in awkward silence. Rui snapped out of his surprise – Tsukasa could have sworn, that dragon’s tail just wagged there.
“Pwwth-- Well that works out, my rabbit”, the dragonkin chuckled, closing the distance that the hero’s jumpiness had caused. With smooch movements, he slit his hand under Tsukasa’s chin. Before the shorter guy even had a change to react, Rui pulled his head up and kissed his lips.
The kiss itself was pretty faint and soft, but it felt so, so much more vibrant in Tsukasa’s mind. There weren’t fireworks going off, sure, but he still swore he could see colours flashing by from the corner of his vision. Slowly, he closed his eyes – or would’ve, if Rui didn’t withdraw at that moment.
Tsukasa frowned at that, which probably could be seen as the dragonkin wore his usual feline-like smirk. “Hmm, what’s wrong my little rabbit? Wasn't that satisfying?” the purple-haired one said with clear playful tone.
“I-it’s not that, just that...”
“Oh my, are you telling me it wasn’t enough?”
“That’s... Mmh”
Rui’s smirk grew even bigger, as he moved his hands’ positions to hold the hero’s cheeks on his palms. “Ahh truly, how cute is my dearest”, Rui spoke in lovestruck tone, bending over to kiss Tsukasa once again. This one was rougher than their first one, clearly hungrier.
Still, it didn’t feel too bad. In fact, it did feel quite nice---
...Huh?
...Huh??!
The human pushed the Dragon Lord away, who looked satisfied as always. “Wha---”
“Oh my, did I forget to mention?” Rui chuckled, not even concerned about hiding how much he enjoyed teasing the other. The Dragon Lord playfully stuck his tongue out. “The dragonkin has their tongues forked, did you know?”
“Y-you!! Tell me that beforehand!”
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Nene looked at the way-too-public scene with clear dislike. She knew this was mandatory so Rui could cheer up - and you know, actually work instead of staring at walls like a lovestruck fool. Still though, right now she wished nothing else but to go there and punch him for the sake of the open publicly in throne room – Nene really wished the Dragon Lord ancestors had moved on to the afterlife, and didn’t wander here as a spirit.
“Seriously, what’s up with this public display of affection? God, they’re going to be a nuisance--” Nene was going off, but a knock on an open door got her quiet. Behind it stood the head maid, who had been serving the Dragon Lord for generations, way before the general was even born. “General Kusanagi, I’ve come to inform you that your personal meeting will start in two hours”, she politely smiled, clearly trained to not show any personal feelings through.
“Personal meeting? I don’t remem--- Wait no, Emu!” the General didn’t know what the maid was talking about at first, but once she remembered her tone was filled with panic. Shit, she had her hands too full of the Lord that was foolishly in love, that she had forgotten her promise to the pink-haired girl! She wasn’t prepared at all!
“My hair isn’t too greasy luckily... Wait, my hair ties are completely uneven!”
“Do I smell bad? Actually, would she even notice such a thing? For now, I’ll add a soft fragrance”
“Ahh clothes, clothes! Where's that cute robe I bought just for this? I can’t go in the usual, it’s way too slobby!”
“There, we’re ready! Just as--- No no, the horns, the horns! Aah, I forgot them again! Now I gotta do my hair again---”
The Dragon General ran around, trying to perfect herself as quickly as possible. Which wasn’t easy, as she stumbled around as usual when the pink-haired girl was concerned.
“Well then, I’m off”, Nene spoke coldly to the head maid, before getting her wings out and jumping from a window – She could’ve easily used a balcony or a door instead you know, but felt like it was a waste of time.
“Take great care, General Kusanagi”, the maid simply smiled, but let a sigh of relief once the General left her radius of hearing. The general should still be able to hear the head maid, but as if the purple-eyed girl would notice the maid when her attention is on that human girl.
“Geez, the youngsters don’t have any self-awareness these days.”