Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If someone asked morax from 1000 years ago if he’d take a mate, he’d probably kill them, laughing as some brave soul dare ask the mighty red lapis such an outrageous thing. But as morax stared awestruck at the sight layed before him, he couldn’t help but feel his breath hitch.

Ahead of morax was a beautiful cyan and magenta white dragon, the long coiling body laying peacefully in the field of flowing glaze lilies , Unbothered by the world around it. The dragon had two transparent curling horns made of hydro with electro cackling around it, it probably wielded both elements, interesting, morax has never met such a creature, to be fair he never bothered to stop and examine his opponents, Too busy crushing their poor skulls with his massive talons. It’s tail spilt off into two towards the end of it, one screaming and howling with electro while the other layed and flowed in a continuous loop with hydro.

Morax has never seen such a beautiful dragon before, to be honest, he hasn’t met any, exuvia are solitary creatures, preferring to keep to themselves and not want others poking their heads in places it shouldn’t be. Morax hasn’t seen an exuvia since…..since his hatchling days, playing with his siblings and mother… ah he wonders where they are right now…. Maybe he’ll ask Madame ping to do some deep see digging.

Too distracted in his thoughts, morax failed to notice the extravagant crystal blue eyes staring at him. He was frozen in place by its piercing gaze. Eyes narrowing in warning and lips pulled back in a snarl, a warning hiss leaving through as those sharp fangs revealed themselves to him.

Stunned, morax could only watch as the beautiful creature took off towards the sky, and disappeared completely into the clouds, scales and fur matching perfectly in the environment.

<~~~~~>

The next time they meet was at a watering hole morax favoured. The crystal clear water showing no signs of dirt or disease endearing fish in it. And there again, sat ever so elegantly, the mysterious dragon. It had its eyes closed as it drank the water. As if savouring the fresh and relaxing cold feeling, purposely made this way by none other than morax himself. The dragon soon noticed his presence as morax’s tail started to thump on the ground, causing rocks and dirt to fly.

It huffed in exasperation as it, once again, saw that bastard of a dragon that has been following it. It has no reason to actually try and run away seeing as morax never actually did anything worthy of such coldness, usually keeping a comfortable distance between the two, as if sensing that it didn’t trust him nor like him.

It turned its eyes towards morax and watched as the dragon seemingly stopped moving once he caught its eye. Being pinned down by that piercing gaze and shining eyes. It snorted silently and flicked its hydro wielding tail in the other dragons direction, sighing amusingly as the dragon looked around himself at the mess caused by his potential mate. It looked back once more before taking off into the skies and disappearing once again. ‘This one is going to be hard to get’ morax thought as he made his way over to jueyen karst, to ask the adept on help on what to do with his current dilemma.

<~~~~~>

“Hmm, I never thought I’d see the day morax would take a mate.” Madame ping said as she moved towards the stone table under a flowing blossom tree by cloud retainers abode, it seems she still has yet to come out. “I’ve not yet decided on whether or not I will take it as my mate, I just want to get close to it without it running away…” Madame ping laughed as morax pouted at her, clearly a sight she’d never thought she’d see, ever. “Have you tried making your intentions known morax?” He frowned at that, usually when a dragon wants to mate another, they offer them gifts as a peace offering, if the gift is accepted it can mean two things, 1. The dragon wishes to mate with you, and will usually let you into their den (depending on the material) or 2. The dragon is using you, usually female dragons will lead the males on for months, accepting the gift but never letting the male in. They’d act all mysterious and shy, preferably to draw the male in, then in that moment of weakness, they kill them off, destroying the potential threat to their lives and den. They only ever do this though if the female is pregnant or has already given birth, it’s a panic tactic, one that works every time because a lust driven dragon is a dumb dragon.

“I’ll take your silence as a no, gather as much valuable materials as you can and give them to the beauty, I’m sure they will appreciate the gesture.”

So that’s what morax did, for the next three days morax set out on a journey throughout the whole of Liyue to try and gather as much materials and gems as he could for the dragon, Cor lapis, a piece of noctilucous jade from The chasm, (the finest pieces for his m-dragon friend) glaze lilies, silk flowers and finally a lone starconch, this one was the most recommended by Madame ping, morax questioned her but she only laughed and walked off towards the blue cranes domain, “you’ll see why” she said as she entered. So morax decided not to question her, and moved onwards, on a mission to collect the courting gifts.

<~~~~~>

Liyue harbour was a city that morax created with his own two hands, morphing and shaping the land in a certain way that would provide the harbour protection from demons and god’s alike, and some unfortunate cases, dragons.

The adepti would probably be one of his most proud creations, beings made by his hands alone to protect the land that they were “born” in. Morax is very territorial of his beloved liyue, treating it like a nest full of precious gems, which they technically were, human lives were fickle and fragile, a single injury to the side that’s not even worth fawning over for beings such as him could easily kill a weak mortal, but yet, not all mortals are weak, but that doesn’t stop them from being fragile.

Maybe that’s the reason why guizhong liked mortals so much. She knew how small and Weak they were compared to beings like gods so she made it her mission to protect and understand them, something morax would never understand. Why waste your time protecting something that is only going to die in the next year or so? It’s useless! But guizhong only laughed, “you’ll understand some day” she said, it was only after she died did morax finally understand what she was talking about.

Seeing the mortals that guizhong loved to interact with in so much distress and fear fuelled something within morax, a sense of wanting to protect them washed over him. At first, morax was confused, ‘why do I feel the need to protect something significantly weaker than me? It’s only gonna cause unnecessary problems!’ but that day that guizhong met her end, morax knew, he knew he was going to protect these people for as long as he lived, because in a land of war and destruction, no one was truly safe, these people didn’t ask for this, the need to protect was all the more justifiable. And maybe that’s what guizhong was trying to teach him.

Ah but as morax stared at those magenta scales once more, he couldn’t help but not care about what happeneds to those mortals should this beautiful dragon only be using him. Just as long as he at least gets to scent them, he’ll be satisfied. (A foolish thought, one he’d surely be scolded for)

Those cyan and magenta eyelids opened up to see morax sitting closer than what he usually does yet still a bit further away. Instead of seeing those piercing cold eyes, and hissing fangs, he was met with a yawn and body stretch, almost as if the dragon learned to accept him.

seeing the chance with the dragons sluggish movement, morax slowly moved forward, still keeping a comfortable distance as to not upset the dragon. He set down the geo basket of his gems from his own den along with the flowers and slowly backed away, awaiting the dragons reaction. The magenta white dragon moved its tail in the direction of the basket, yanking it towards it, it inspected the items, letting out a pleased hum from the scent of the flowers and gently chewing on the Cor lapis. Morax took this as a sign of acceptance as the dragon favoured the starconch the most, nuzzling against it and growling softly in a pleased manner. He mentally thanked Madame ping for the recommendation.

Standing up and flicking its tails, the dragon took off in a lazy dive off the cliff side, morax, (assuming he’s supposed to follow) followed his potential mate to a cove near the chasm, the cove itself was relatively large, but could barely fit one dragon, better yet two!

Mumbling some coherent words, the dragon dived into the water and didn’t come back up until it noticed morax wasn’t following it, huffing, it dived back up and poked its head through the water, a frown making its way onto that beautiful face. But it stopped frowning and sighed softly at morax laying on the other side of the cove, furthest away from the entrance where it’s head poked through, it seems it had completely miss judged morax’s character, the only reason it took him here was because it had assumed morax wanted to mate, so it was already preparing a new den in case morax ever came back for more but it seemed morax only wanted a friend he could relate with (Or a mate) which was proven to be even more true since morax seemed so hesitant to approach, carefully placing the basket of beautiful gems and backing away. The dragons in sneznaya were arrogant and clumsy, only looking for a dragon to mate with and not make it its life long partner so they never put any effort into the “gifts” they gave him. Which one was one of the reason why he left, he didn’t like the constant harassment of one dragon in particular, “dottore” he called himself, he tried numerous times to try and mate him, at least, it thinks that’s why, dottore has always shown interest in its horns and tails, something it’d never understand but something it’s glad to have escaped from.

It sauntered over to where morax was laying and gently nipped at his ear, looking over, morax saw those usual piercing blue eyes hold a new softness, one just for him. Following the dragon to the water, morax looked at the mini lake then back at the dragon. Nudging morax in the shoulder, the dragon went through first and gently called out for him.

Morax was at a loss, he knew that entering the den of a another dragon was deadly, but if you were being invited in, it had to be fine?…right?

Putting his clawed paw in the water, he noticed that seemed to not be a shallow pool, surprising, morax put his whole body in the pool and whined as he fell right through and into a cave 3 times bigger than him, and he was huge!

In the centre of the cave, the dragon was layed on its back and stretched outwards, paws extending to the ceiling and stomach oddly bulged at the sides and outwards. Only then did morax notice that this beautiful dragon, was pregnant. ‘Aren’t female pregnant dragons usually very protective? Why is she allowing me in her den?’ morax’s questioned died on his tongue as he saw the tip of a penis hiding in a vent just underneath its tails. ‘Hmm it’s a male?..even more strange’

Sitting back up, the male dragon dragged its clawed hind legs over towards morax and flopped down gently on top of him, rolling off his back and then head butting him in the cheek, scenting him.

He wanted to be his mate!

Morax licked his scales and mane, clearly happy that the dragon learned to trust him. He curled around him and layed down, gently bringing the other with him. He started nipped and nosing around the skin that he could reach, cleaning his mate. The other softly cooed in appreciation, voice gentle and welcoming, a strict contrast to how he acted when he first met morax.

<~~~~~>

For the next 2 months, morax was in and out of
the den, with, Ajax, the name of which belonged to his mate, so close to his due date it was a big risk for him to be out the den so morax volunteered to do the hunting and gathering of materials for their nest.

As morax flew through the clouds, mouth full of nesting material, he looked down towards Liyue harbour and saw multiple lights set up, and many suspiciously shaped xiao lanterns in peoples hands, only then did he realise that it was lantern rite. And he completely forgot. Ningguang was going to kill him for this.

True to his word, ningguang was not happy, at all, but after explaining why he’s been so busy and why he forgot, he was immediately forgiven, the tianquan seemingly happy that her lord finally found someone to settle down with.

Morax smiled and thanked her, grateful that he wasn’t being punished, but he wasn’t let off the hook either, at least not yet.

<~~~~~>

Morax’s head shot up, immediately going into alert and defence mode at the sound of his mate whining and squirming, only to realise that his legs were wide open, ready to lay the eggs, not sure of what to do he walked over to Ajax and groomed him between the horns, purposely choosing to ignore the fact that his horns and tails no longer continuously sparked, as if sensing he was here to protect and love rather then steal and kill.

Ajax whined again and morax chuffed apologetic, Ajax purred in return.

He growled as the first egg was so close to coming out, being stuck on the middle as it tried to pass through his puckered and abused rim. Morax’s nostrils flared at the sight, a distant hunger making itself known as heat flashed over his body. Shaking his head, he looked away and comforted his hissing mate who was staring at him with understanding eyes. Huffing, morax nipped his mates horns and gestured towards the now birthed egg slowly rolling towards him. This was going to be a long night.

And long it was, it took a total of 3 hours to get them all out but finally it was over.

Cleaning at his rear end, Ajax turned his head towards morax and huffed amusingly at the lost puppy doll eyes thrown his way after looking at the eggs, clearly confused on what to do. Ajax sighed softly and gestured morax towards him, laying on his side with the eggs tucked nice and snug against his pale stomach.

Morax crawled around him and towards his back where he curled his body around his mate and eggs in a defensive manner. He sat his head down on the side of Ajax’s head and licked the path between his horns lazily. Ajax rolled onto his back and purred at the sensation of that rough yet soft and gentle tongue slowly licking down his neck. He sighed in pure bliss and fell asleep to the sound of his and morax’s soft purrs.

Morax didn’t know if he’d ever have kids, in fact, ask any of the adepti and they’d tell you morax was strictly against the idea. Maybe it was the fear of losing his mate, or the things he’d learned happened to male dragons after they tried to completely leave the nest that made him stay.

Or it was the way being in this situation made morax feel free of all his burdens, mind clear and the only thing accompanying it being tiny little baby dragons crawling all over the place.

Either way morax was completely content with his life at the moment, sure this isn’t how he saw this year going but couldn’t bring himself to complain because even though he preferred the sight of his opponents blood on his talons, he guesses he could get use to this.

As morax layed his head next to his sleeping mate, he smiled and hoped the future would be just as bright as those brilliant crystal eyes that lazily stared at him before going back to sleep.

Yeah,he could most certainly get use to this.

Chapter Text

Those two months of waiting for the eggs to hatch were filled with cuddles, hunting and non stop questions from the Adepti.

“You never told us the advice was for a potential mate?!?” , “well not potential anymore, he is my mate” , “not the point!” , “wait he?!?”

Morax awoke to the feeling of something biting his ear. Opening his eyes he saw Ajax with an attempt of a smile on his Face.

Confused, morax looked behind him and saw the first egg, a brilliant obsidian colour, spilt in half to reveal a tiny dog sized baby dragon. It’s scales were black and magenta but it’s fur was a beautiful vibrant red.

Eyes wide morax could only stare as the baby dragon slowly made its way towards him. Tripping and tumbling every now and then.

It sat on morax’s right paw and yawned. Ajax walked over and picked the baby dragon up by the scruff of its neck. And placed it back in the nest. Curling around it and the rest of the eggs, grooming them.

Morax was still sat further away with eyes open and in slits, watching the hatchling explore the nest and try and climb over its mother.

Chuffing loudly, Ajax called morax over and gestured towards the hatchling, “cmon, she’s not gonna hurt you.” Morax tumbled backwards, “wh-what?!-“ , “yes, I can talk, I’m sorry for not telling you earlier but come come!” Morax walked over to the nest and sat down, “not so far silly! Come greet your daughter.” , walking closer, morax curled around the two of them and watched as his daughter swiftly walked over, chirping happily, putting her adorable paws on his snout, she climb up and through his antlers and sat in his mane. Chuffing loudly, clearly happy about herself.

The moment was short lived as the other two eggs started rocking back and forth. Cracks started to from on the eggs as eventually they split in two at the same time to reveal two pale blue and black baby dragons.

Ajax fussed over them as he licked them clean of the fluids they were coated in from the egg. They chirped and raced for Ajax’s chest where they latched their tiny teeth onto a nipple each, suckling like their lives depended on it.

Sighing, Ajax looked towards morax and his daughter and smiled as he saw her fighting with morax’s tail as the other watched her.

“Morax?” His head snapped in the direction of his mate. Seeing the tired look in those beautiful eyes made him coo. He slid over to Ajax and gently nipped at the fur between his horn’s, answering his unspoken question.

“You’re not gonna speak?”, “my apologies love, I didn’t know you preferred me to speak.” , “you have a very nice voice, I love it” he said quietly, looking away From the blinding look of love and adoration in morax’s eyes. Morax hummed, “really? Your voice is just as nice my dear, it’s gentle yet firm.” If dragons could blush, Ajax would be so red right now. “Thank you.” He whispered.

For the next 3 months morax was in and out of the den, alternating between gathering food for his mate and children and running Liyue along side ningguang, safest to say, it wasn’t easy, at all.

Morax was resting in his and Ajax’s shared den. His mate had proclaimed that he hasn’t been out in a while so he wanted to go out for a fly and hunt for the first time in 7 months. He was a bit hesitant to agree, although he was lacking in the awareness of his own kinds biology, he had some basic knowledge. Dragons were a lot more capable than humans but that didn’t stop morax from worrying about and thinking about all the worst possibilities that could happen to his mate without him there. After a long while of thinking he reluctantly agreed after seeing those “puppy eyes?” On his dragon mate.

As morax layed with his head on his front legs the three hatchlings were causing all types of trouble. Xingxiu and hao were fighting nearest to his tale whilst lahan was climbing over his body and using his head and snout as a ramp.

Who knew three brave hatchlings would (unknowingly) be using the body of Rex Lapis, the body of a mighty god who tore through and sealed gods away, the body of a creature so majestic yet terrifying that simply saying his name could bring fear, who knew the body of said warrior god would be used as a playground for his mates kin.

Certainly not him.

And certainly not his mate either.

morax awoke when he felt chewing and soft scratching on his antlers. albeit difficult, morax looked up to see lahan attached to one of his antlers grinning in a demonic yet adorable way (as a adorable as a grinning baby dragon could get)

Yawning, morax used his mighty tail now turned gentle to scoop the boys up and layed them in the junction between his front lower belly and paws. He gently shook his head in order to get lahan down, who, once again slid off his head as if he was a mere toy and not a god that saw the birth of everything in this world.

Fascinating

He thought with a rumble as he swept his tongue over the three squirming hatchlings, who clearly wanted to be free. Purring gently morax accepted fate as he let himself be toppled over the (sorry) attempt of the hatchlings ramming into him. Laying on his back morax internally chuckled as he felt little harmless nibbles against his pale stomach. He feigned defeat as the hatchlings crawled onto his abdomen and hopped in their place.

Morax can’t recall the last time he truly felt happiness quite like this. His life was full of slaughter, blood and war but he can’t bring himself to complain as he watched the hatchlings Yip in pride after finally defeating the indestructible Rex lapis!

Tenderness and softness was not something you’d use to describe morax. Anyone who came across and (fortunately) lived to tell the tale would tell you that morax was a cruel creature (which isn’t necessarily wrong but he’s only cruel when he needs to be). He takes his contracts seriously. Those who have ever broken a contract in the land of Liyue have faced something known as “the wrath of the rock” (which is rather fitting for the lord of geo)

Ah but those days are over now. All those years of bloodshed and malice are finally over as now morax is now (accidentally) a father! And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ajax was a special type of dragon. Being shaped and moulded from his unfortunate time in the abyss (hence the electro power) he can’t say if it was an experience he truly hates seeing as it only made himself stronger and more powerful. Abyssal dragons have a hidden technique. A technique only a handful are able to master. With the constant training and help of his teacher, a female electro and Cryo dragon, skirk, he now mastered the art of invisibility.

When in a dire situation and there’s no way to get out, just like a chameleon, his body matches the colour of the environment around him. It’s a type of technique that requires a lot of concentration and energy, especially if you plan to move around whilst invisible, but with enough training, he mastered that too.

He had been personally asked by the tsarista if he’d like to join the fatui and become a secret weapon of sorts, and although tempted, he politely refused, not quite sure if he liked the idea of being used as nothing more than a weapon. So he turned away and took flight towards the snowey mountains where he resided before eventually agreeing with himself to go a climate much warmer in order to lay his eggs and finalise a den that won’t be infiltrated by dead beat sneznayan dragons.

Using the technique, Ajax watched with a fond look on his face at the lovely sight of the mighty Rex lapis playing with his hatchlings. He had heard many stories from many creatures about the cruel and unforgiving ways of Rex lapis, he won’t lie and say he wasn’t afraid, but now he just realised that people were only seeing one half of the exuvia, not the other half that was restricted to him and him only.

Papa lapis.

Making his presence known he watched in amusement as his darling hatchlings hastily scrambled off of their papa and over towards him with excited yips. He greeted them all individually. Making sure that they all got the same amount of love from his big heart.

“How was it?” His gentle voice asked as the dragon before him got up and shook the dust off of him which caused the den to gently rattle and the hatchlings to lose their balance from the sudden movement of the earth.

“It was not that bad. I rather enjoyed spending time with yo-our hatchlings.” He cooed apologetically at the hatchlings as they grumbled in displeasure.

Ajax snickered and layed down on the ground in order to let the hatchlings have their lunch for the day. He sighed as he felt sharp tiny teeth latch onto a nipple each and suckle.

Morax watched with a fond look on his usual serious and straight face. He loved this dragon more than anything, he’d give up anything for him. Including Liyue (a fruitless lie dare I say)

He wonders where his siblings are now. Hopefully living a life just as happy as his. He never really knew his siblings that much, having been kicked out the nest after his first 2 decades. He wouldn’t be lying if he said he’d like to meet them some day. He hoped none of them had died. Just the thought of being the only one left in his mothers brood brought him great sorrow. But he pushed such thoughts elsewhere. Why think about a forgotten past and unknown future when you could very much be living your life in the present?

So that’s what he did. He curled Around his mate and young once more and relished in the feel of his mate head butting his chin and softly nipping at the skin underneath it.

Morax prayed that Liyue will be able to look after itself because he can’t seem to tear his eyes away from that piercing gaze that held a new emotion now very familiar to him.

He trusted ningguang and the qixing, surely they’d be able to watch Liyue in his temporary absence. At least until the hatchlings we’re older, but until then, he’ll rejoice in the warmth surrounding him.

And if ningguang is unable to protect Liyue then he’ll do it with his new found mate.

I mean…as the saying goes

What’s a king without his queen?