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1. Sleeping Together
Raon, On, and Hong loved sleeping with their human. Although he was a bit bony, something that they were all fixing now that their human could have regular meals at peace, their human was very warm and gentle. He'd watch over them to make each of them were safe and comfortable. When he slept, his presence was just as safe and comfortable.
Sleeping with their human was like taking shelter in heaven. Their mattress and blankets were just as soft as the clouds.
In the morning, Ron would habitually check on them and smile, silently closing the door to give them all more rest. A few more minutes, even hours, of sleeping in was fine.
2. Shopping Together
"Human! Human, look at that! What is that!"
"Cale! Can I have that, nya?"
"..." "Do you want to try it, On?" "Can I? ...Okay!"
Cale smiled after explaining to Raon some of the fishing equipment he saw in the window of a sports store, buying Hong some meat skewers of a street stand, and entering a fashion boutique with On who had evidently liked one of the dresses she saw.
They were all window shoppers who liked walking down the streets and exploring each and every store in person. Although Cale preferred sending a servant to do his shopping or looking at a catalog from home when Ron refused to choose for him (he really had no opinion on what he wore!), he didn't mind these casual strolls once in a while.
It was also nice that the children were becoming more confident and relaxed, beginning to realize that Cale would buy them anything they wanted, patiently explain what they didn't understand and patiently watch over them as they ran around or tried many things.
Had spatial bags not existed, Cale would have been fine with carrying their bags as well.
Shopping was a chore, but he liked seeing the kids happy.
3. Fears
"Hahaha, you're such a coward, Hong! We defeated countless villains, traveled the forbidden lands, met countless monsters, and you're scared of spiders?"
"It wasn't just a spider!" Hong protested, flatting his ears in embarrassment at the loud screech he gave moments ago. Pointing at a corner, he yelled, "It was a big spider! With really long legs! You're only like this because you have wings! I bet you're just flying because you're scared of them too!"
"No, I'm not." Raon said, flying down towards the corner to make a point. He smirked as he raised a paw towards the cobweb. Hong screeched again, his fur spiking outwards. Raon laughed and circled around Hong, singing, "Hong is scared of spiders! Hong is scared of spiders!"
"Stop it! It's not funny! I'm not!" Hong hissed, turning to his sister for help, "Noona!"
He was left disappointed.
His sister was hiding her own laugh behind her paws. She coughed in one, but couldn't hide her smile. "Sorry, it kind of is."
"Noona!"
She giggled again.
Hong harrumphed, fed up with the two. His family was horrible. He was going to leave.
When he turned however, he bumped into Cale who had came to check on them after the first screech. Cale smiled as he knelt down to pat Hong's hair, calming the risen strands to a lull. Hong stared wide-eyed at the human, a warmth tickling his disheartened heart.
"You're scared of spiders?"
"...Yeah!" Hong shouted, having no trouble admitting it this time. Jumping into Cale's arms, he rubbed his furry head against Cale's chin and pawed his shoulders, happily settling in Cale's embrace. "Comfort me!"
"Okay," Cale laughed, "Do you want cookies or ice cream?" He asked as he stood up to turn and leave.
"Both!" Hong beamed, tail wagging at the thoughts of an ice cream sandwich and more of Cale's delightful pats. The spider was forgotten. "Can we eat together?"
"Of course."
The door closed. The two others were forgotten as well.
Raon and On exchanged glances before rushing to catch up to their human, uncaring of their previous words.
"Human!" "Cale! Wait! We're scared of spiders too! We want to eat together too!"
4. Farting
Cale wrinkled his nose, finally getting up from his bed. He looked at the clock. It was just 9 am and he was actually already getting up, but he really couldn't sleep anymore. He held his brows.
"...Did you just fart?"
Raon and Hong looked sheepishly up at him while On giggled on the corner of the king sized bed, very far from the odor's reach. She still placed a paw on her little nose to cover.
"No?" They asked.
"Liars." Cale said as he got out of the warm sheets. Still, he patted them on the head to show that he wasn't that angry. He supposed it was time to wake up anyways.
5. Looking Through Memories of the Past
"Why didn't you invent the camera earlier?" Raon complained as he looked through the new set of photos they had taken, admiring how they all looked. His human was very handsome and of course, he himself was very great and mighty! "I would have taken so many pictures!"
"I didn't think about it." Cale admitted as he himself was looking through many pictures, the many pictures and recordings he had of all of them in the film reel of his eidetic mind. "But we can start taking pictures now." He offered when Raon drooped at the many opportunities lost.
Raon beamed and he nodded excitedly, "Yes! Let's take many! Everywhere we go in the world, human! I want to look back on everything we did together!"
Cale smiled and patted him on the head. "I do too." In fact, he secretly already was.
On looked at him in surprise however, pointing out, "You never liked portraits though. Why don't you mind pictures?"
Cale huffed. "Because you don't have to sit still or pose for five hours or more for a picture." Cale liked slacking, but being still for a portrait to be drawn was horrible. The kids didn't like it either.
As if realizing the big difference, the kids also widened their eyes and demanded, wailing as they remembered that one time they had to have their portraits taken with the whole family, which had been exciting at first but then absolutely horrible.
"Why didn't you make the camera earlier?!"
"My bad, my bad." Cale easily admitted his fault.
6. Complaining About Each Other
"You have too much fur! It gets all over Cale's clothes!"
"You have too many scales! It's so itchy and sharp when I want to sleep with Cale too!"
"You snore!"
"You drool!"
"You kick in your sleep!"
"Your wings hit people in their sleep!"
"You take up so much room!"
"You always claim the pillow next to Cale's head!"
"You-"
"Okay, okay," Cale cut in, stopping the arguing children. Raon and Hong still glared at each other from behind Cale's outstretched hands, "What about we compromise and everyone sleeps in their own rooms tonight?"
Raon and Hong whipped their heads towards him in horror, shouting, "No!" Grabbing his sleeves, even digging their claws into the fabric so that he couldn't disentangle himself from them, they pleaded, "No, Cale/human! We still want to sleep with you. Even if it's with him!"
Cale was amused by how they could still be so in sync despite their differences. He moved to pat their heads.
"So what do we say?"
They deflated and turned to each other.
"I'm sorry, Hong." "I'm sorry too, Raon. You're a great dragon."
"You're a good Cat too."
7. Pets
Cale couldn't believe that this was even a subject.
"You want pets?" He asked the dragon and Cats.
"Yeah!" They happily shouted, not knowing how much they were blowing Cale's mind. Because he had never thought that the kids would ever want a pet. Were they going to ask for a lizard or pet cat? Wasn't that... kind of like slavery? Speaking of which, could dragons eat alligators? That wouldn't be cannibalism right? No, back to the question about pets, what would be a pet for these races? A human? A dog? But they had Wolves in their family. How would Lock feel? It was going to be a human, wasn't it. They wanted a human. Cale was finally going to have to do something against his morals and kidnap a human for the kids.
"We heard that pandas on the Eastern continent were going to go extinct so we wanted to take them in and raise them! The human has saved many things before and taken care of all kinds of people so we thought we could do just as a good job as well! Can we, can we, can we? Can we have pet pandas?"
Oh. It wasn't a human. Cale sighed in relief before he froze again. Wait. What? They wanted pet pandas? (There were pandas in this world?) They wanted to take care of an endangered species?
Cale sweated. "I don't know..."
"Please!" They pleaded, widening their eyes and pawing his pants.
"...Well, we'll see after I see how serious you are. Helping an endangered species isn't a small matter. There is a lot of research and planning that is needed. If you can get full marks on a test on pandas and species conservation I will give you in two weeks, then I will allow it."
"Yes!!" They cheered, wiggling in happiness and hugging his leg. "We'll do it, we'll do it! Thanks human! Let's go save the pandas!"
Despite the heavy expectation of a bothersome future of taking care of pandas in addition to their farm, Cale couldn't help a smile at their happiness.
Well, if he unconsciously was fine with having humans as pets if it would make the kids happy, he couldn't really draw the line at an endangered species. Not that he would kidnap a human against their will. No, consent was important and it wouldn't be so bad to be taken care of for life by a dragon and two Cats in the wealthy Henituse family. Hans would certainly volunteer. Cale nodded, feeling his shaky moral bottom re-balanced and justified. Now, he would have to go find books on the pandas of this world. Hopefully, they were just like the ones in his past world and weren't too troublesome, but there was no guarantee that same named species across worlds were also the same across worlds.
8. Peaceful Moments
Cale liked to close his eyes. He liked to sleep whenever he could or just bask in the light.
But recently, he couldn't do that because he realized that he liked something more. He liked watching the kids play and have fun. He liked watching them chase after butterflies and marvel at the world. He liked hearing them read books and act stories and wrestle.
Cale couldn't take his eyes off of them. He liked seeing them happy.
(It was a problem that the kids had before, actually. They liked playing and moving and travelling... but there was something so attractive about the human that they couldn't help but sit down and watch him sleep and relax and have fun quietly wherever he laid to rest.
There was something about their human that made it impossible to look away. They too just liked seeing him happy.)
9. Our First Memory Together
"Human? Do you remember the first time we met?"
"Hm?" Cale answered sleepily, "Of course I do."
"I do too. I thought you were like them, but when you held me, I felt so safe and warm. And I still think so now. I like being in your arms the most!" Raon said, rolling on Cale's chest, making Cale huff a quiet laugh at the ticklish feeling. "What do you think now?" Raon asked.
Cale thought back to that day he had first saw Raon, the black dragon that had stood out when he had read the novel and the black dragon that looked at him with defiant, lively eyes. Raon was just as he thought. "Amazing," Cale answered, recalling how Raon had looked and then of the stars in his eyes when he later saw the sky. He stood in his arms, neck stretched to the heavens, free and strong as if he had never been chained or harmed for so many years. "I thought you were the most amazing dragon and I still think that now. Don't tell Eruhaben that." Cale joked and Raon giggled with laughter.
"It's okay, human! I am the great and mighty Raon Miru! That I'm the best dragon is a secret widely known to the world!"
10. Secret Compartment
There was a secret compartment that Cale had in his desk. They always wondered about it, but never opened it.
Until one day, they couldn't get rid of their curiosity and they did, despite knowing how angry their human might be if they did.
Then, when they did open it, they realized that their human would never be angry. Maybe for a little bit, but not for long.
Because inside the secret compartment was a sketchbook full of Cale's drawings of them. Delicately drawn memories of all the times they had together from Hong and On eating bread in front of the Man-Eating Tree for the first time to Raon looking at the stars for the first time in Cale's arms to all their adventures together, all the fights they fought, all the times they relaxed at home, their first lemonade, their first steak, their first cake, and their recent trips to places around the world.
Always, their human had paid attention to them.
Always, their human had loved them.
Inside the secret compartment was a good secret.
It was: I love you.