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He shouldn’t be out in the first place, Ichabod knew that. It was the middle of the night and he was in the woods without anyone else to make sure he didn’t get lost or murdered. Every stick cracking under his feet and the brushing of leaves in the wind sent him into more of a panic, and he just wanted to get home. He was thankful for the full moon, it provided enough light to where he didn’t have to strain as hard in normal lighting, but that just made him more aware that there could be werewolves or other monsters lurking and waiting to have him as a midnight snack.
After about half an hour of aimlessly wandering, Ichabod started to hear something. He would have liked it better if he DIDN’T know what it was, but instead he knew fully well what dragon snores sound like. He got used to them back where he lived because of the relationships the town had built with the dragon family, but he wasn’t anywhere near there now and he was pretty sure that any other dragon wasn’t going to be as kind to him.
Ichabod froze to stay as quiet as possible, slowing even his breathing as to not wake the sleeping beast. He wasn’t sure where it was exactly, but he decided that if he could hear it peacefully breathing, that was close enough. The only problem was that he was 99.99% sure the snores were coming from the direction he needed to go in order to get back home. Which of course was less than ideal.
There were two things that Ichabod could think of that he could do. The first was to sneak past and hope that the dragon was still far enough away that he didn’t have to cross its path at all and be fine; and the second was to wait until the morning and be able to see better and find where the dragon was so he knew he could easily avoid it. Both of these options sounded like Hell to Ichabod, and it was hard to imagine him staying out here. It was summer, but the elevation of the mountains didn’t seem to care and night got cold enough to where it wasn’t comfortable. Not cold, just not something that was preferred to stay the night in.
Now, Ichabod has never been brave. In fact, he would say he’s the complete opposite of brave. So he had no idea where the want to go past anyways came from. It would have been much safer and easier to stay put and wait. But instead he found himself jumping at every stick cracking, wincing whenever it led to more noise, and fighting himself internally for being in the situation in the first place. How was he supposed to know there was a dragon though?! No one had ever talked about it before, and they were a big enough threat to the general population that it was something that he should have heard about by the people in the village.
All was going fine until Ichabod actually found the dragon. It was sleeping in the middle of a large clearing that he was HOPING would help him find where he was. Instead, Ichabod was met with the giant head of a honk shoo mimiming red dragon. And it was massive. Ichabod had already seen dragons, you know this. He was comfortable with their larger size and huge muscles that could probably tear through anything if they wanted to badly enough. But nothing could have prepared him for this dragon specifically.
There were so many scars, and some wounds that looked to still be healing. There were white scales where there should be red, Ichabod guessed with how many times they had to be replaced and the body couldn’t keep up with the pigmentation. (I don’t know dragon lore so I’m making my own fight me)
This was all very fascinating and would be very cool, however Ichabod was also a good 15 feet from the beast. And he had no idea how long it was until sunrise. He guessed a few hours at least, but it could be closer to 5 or 6. Time never made sense to Ichabod anyways, and again *there was a dragon and he didn’t know what to do.*
There was something drawing him to it though. He guessed it was something that he had no control over, which is what made him make the decision to continue even after he decided he didn’t want to, and what led him straight to the dragon. If it was God playing a cruel joke, he would have some words for later. And if it was any other god, then he would also have even stronger words. Either way, he was getting annoyed and just wanted to sleep.
So, taking the deepest breath he could manage without making noise, Ichabod retreated back into the forest to hide and wait. He wanted to find somewhere to sleep still, but he didn’t want to be close to the dragon in case it woke up and was hungry for some human midnight snack. There was a tree that was big enough to hold him while he slept, and Ichabod’s immaculate tree climbing skills took him an hour to figure out how to get up and exhausted him by the time he was up. So falling asleep came easily enough.
When he did wake up, everything was hectic as all could be. He forgot where he was, and almost fell out of the branch that he was resting on, and he forgot about the dragon so he yelled out. When he did remember all of last night’s events, he froze completely. Every muscle in his body was tense and on edge, and he was listening intently to hear any sign that the dragon was still there. He didn’t hear anything though, so he made the climb down.
It was somehow *harder* than getting up, but didn’t take him as long because when he got about half way down, Ichabod fell. It hurt like a bitch, and he called out again. This time he got a response.
It wasn’t from a dragon though.
Standing over Ichabod now, was a man. A half dragon man. His wings matched the ones of the dragon exactly, and he was covered in scars and wounds that the dragon had. Ichabod knew this because he was very much not wearing a shirt, and if he had to guess, his legs looked the same amount of damaged as the dragons did. He was also smiling as wide as Ichabod thought possible, looked down and simply *picked Ichabod up.*
“What are you-?” Ichabod yelled, but was cut off when he was flung over one shoulder and was being taken into the clearing.
“Be quiet, I’ll answer questions later. I’m sure you figured out by now that I was the dragon from last night,” The man’s voice was deep, as well as steady and calm. It scared Ichabod into submission a lot faster than he would like to admit, but if it meant that he didn’t get killed-
The giant half dragon put him down and motioned (it was just him pointing) for Ichabod to sit, which he did.
“First before I answer anything you ask, I have to know what you’re doing here,” The man said.
“Can I at least know your name?”
“Koth. Now answer the question.”
“That wasn’t a question though?” Ichabod jumped back when Koth pulled out a giant sword from *somewhere* and held it, blade out, at Ichabod. The message was clear. “I got lost and was trying to find my way back, I uh, saw you sleeping and didn’t want to wake you up, so I was going to wait until you left or something and try to get back home.”
Koth let out a long sigh and lowered his sword. It still wasn’t exactly non-threatening, but it made Ichabod a little more relaxed now that he wasn’t directly being threatened. “Well, as long as you’re alone and not a hunter, which I doubt seeing how weak you are, then I don’t care.”
“I promise, I’m just a writer back home and I don’t have anyone that would come looking for me or anything, I don’t want to bring any trouble either-”
“Save your breath. I said I don’t care and I mean it. As promised though, I’ll let you ask a question that I bet I already know,” Koth sat down next to Ichabod. The wave of emotions that Ichabod experienced was… very confusing.
Koth smelled like campfire and the woods, which Ichabod should have expected but instead he was prepared for something awful. A pleasant surprise. The next thing that caught Ichabod’s attention was just how strong Koth was. To put it bluntly, Koth was ripped. And Ichabod found it really hot.
But this isn't a smut fic as much as I want it to be so :D
"How come you don't live in the village?" Ichabod asked. Which clearly caught Koth off guard. Ichabod knew he expected the question to be 'how did you turn into a dragon' but that wouldn't lead to an interesting conversation, so he asked that instead. And was proud of himself for it.
“Well, I have to turn into my dragon form every full moon, but I can do it whenever. It’s just not convenient you see. So I hide here and hope that no one comes after me,” Ichabod watched the way that Koth’s bare chest moved every time he took an inhale, enthralled by every small movement. He only noticed when Koth stopped talking when he also stopped *breathing,* and when he looked up at Koth’s face, he had the smuggest smirk Ichabod had ever seen.
His face immediately went hot, and he could only imagine how much he was blushing. He wanted to hide in his hands, but Koth grabbed them as soon as Ichabod tried.
“Stop, you’re cute like this,” Koth gave another smirk, identical to the one he gave when they first met. He was holding both of Ichabod’s wrists tightly, enough that Ichabod worried about the circulation cutting off. But he wasn’t hating it. His face grew even hotter at the praise, and he started to get a little lightheaded when Koth got closer to his face. His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke. “If you want we could-”
“I should get going now, I know I said I wouldn't have anyone looking for me but I still have responsibilities-” Ichabod was cut off by Koth tightening his grip, almost possessively staring at Ichabod like he was his next prey. He struggled slightly, going from flustered to scared quickly. Koth was still a dragon after all, and if he was going to get kidnapped by said dragon, well he’d rather just not.
Koth let go after Ichabod wore himself out by struggling, and he looked disappointed. There was also disappointment in his words, but Ichabod blocked it out to not allow himself to be guilt tripped into not doing whatever it was Koth wanted. “I expect you to be back. I like you, you remind me of someone and I want to get to know you like I did him. Go now, I don’t want to hold you from your… responsibilities.”
Ichabod didn’t miss the sarcasm, but he stood up and started in a direction that he felt was right anyways. He did it confidently in hopes to trick Koth into thinking he knew where he was going, but he was still absolutely as lost as he was the night before. Just this time he could see.
After more time wandering around, Ichabod found a familiar trail that he had been on plenty of times on his walks through the woods, and was in his home in no time. Everything was as he left it, which was a worry because he didn’t know how people would act if they noticed a home unattended overnight.
There were multiple long days where Ichabod thought about going back to Koth. Those were days where he was bored enough to want to go looking for him, but getting lost in the woods again to stumble into Koth’s territory again didn’t sound like the smartest idea. He also didn’t have a reason to go. There was just something about Koth that was again drawing him into wanting to go back. Ichabod tried to think about it, but no matter what, he never could understand what the attraction was.
About a week after their visit, Ichabod opened his door after hearing a knock to find Koth standing in his doorway. He was still shirtless, wings out and everything, and he *yet again* was smiling. Ichabod shrank back slightly, which granted him a chuckle from Koth.
“Why hello there~” Koth said, leaning down slightly to match Ichabod’s eye level.
“Hello, Koth. I thought you said you didn’t come to the village. Something about hunters?” Ichabod asked, hoping that he didn’t appear too excited to see Koth again. Because he was happy, but there were also a bunch of questions that he didn’t know he’d get the answers to.
“Well, I like you more. And it wasn’t that hard to find you, I memorized your scent and just looked for the house that smelled like you the most,” Well he didn’t even have to ask, and Ichabod was weirdly touched, like he had just received a compliment from Koth. He wanted to find Ichabod, and even though the scent thing was a little weird, Ichabod still couldn’t find it anything but affectionate.
“Do you want to come in? Or go somewhere where there’s less people?” Ichabod asked, then blushed when he realized what he said. “I didn’t mean it like that, I just don’t want you to get into any danger is all.”
“What part of ‘I can turn into a dragon’ makes you think I’d ever be in danger?” Koth teased, but stepped away from the door to what Ichabod assumed to lead him somewhere. Ichabod hoped it was a better way to get back to the clearing; it was a really peaceful place, and the urge to go back was something that he actually fully understood. It was a nice place to get away, and if he now had a friend who could take him there, why wouldn’t he follow?
That was the exact spot that Koth took him, and Ichabod was surprised to see just how close it actually was. It was difficult to get to, but not impossible. Something to scare anyone who was looking for Koth, but if they really wanted to get to him, they could. And now that Ichabod had a clear map of how to get here and back home… He couldn’t help but smile as he laid down on the soft grass, still wet with the morning dew.
“You remind me so much of him, it’s scary actually,” Koth laid down next to Ichabod, who turned over on his side to look at Koth.
“Who was he?” It was a gentle question, and Ichabod hoped that Koth wouldn’t answer if he didn’t want to.
“A human who was very close to me. He found me sleeping here one night, just like you did and came back just to watch me sleep every full moon. I eventually gained the strength to talk to him in this form and we fell in love.” Koth’s gaze was unfocused, and there were tears forming in his eyes. Ichabod didn’t want to push any further as to what happened, but he had a guess.
“I’m sorry, if there’s anything you need or-”
“No, it was a long time ago. I just need to move on, but being alone here, it’s hard to let go when you don’t have anyone else. Which I guess is why I latched onto you so quickly,” Koth laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it, and his eyes were still slightly glazed over. Abruptly, Koth sat up and stretched his wings out fully, along with his arms and legs.
“You don’t have to hide your feelings like that, you’ve already said you liked me multiple times now. And I won’t lie, I think I feel the same way,” Ichabod started, then paused. Koth wasn’t paying any attention to what Ichabod was saying, instead he was focused on movement coming from the trees.
He held out a hand, motioning for Ichabod to stay quiet and still, which he listened to without fighting back. There were definitely people, but it was hard to make anything else out.
“Can you see him, can you, can you?” A small voice called out. They sounded like a child, and Ichabod guessed they weren’t more than ten years old. He relaxed, but it seemed like knowing they were children put Koth MORE on edge.
That was when Koth scooped Ichabod up and stretched out his wings again. Instead of it being a general stretch however, this time Koth shot up well above the tree lines. Ichabod wrapped his arms around Koth’s neck, terrified of falling with how fast they were now flying.
“I hate children. We can stay up here until they get bored and leave.”
Ichabod giggled at that. Of course it made sense, Koth barely liked people, let alone people who were still learning about the world and didn’t always listen to threats. “It’s fine, I like it up here anyways.”
They landed again after about ten minutes. After promising that he’d be back tomorrow, Koth let Ichabod go home to eat and better prepare for future visits. Which turned into daily visits where Ichabod would bring a stack of books that he would read while Koth sat there, seemingly content with watching Ichabod and listening to what it was he was reading when Ichabod needed to rest his eyes. There weren’t any more moments where Koth genuinely scared Ichabod himself, but there were a few times when Koth had to scare off other humans. Sometimes those humans wouldn’t be returning home, but that was something that could be looked past. It’s not like Ichabod didn’t kill to protect himself…
And even though they both confessed to each other, they still took their time to actually get to know the other before starting an official relationship.
Koth watched Ichabod grow old, just as he did the human before him. And he grieved both of their deaths the same, telling himself that this was really the last time that he would fall for anyone else who were bound to die before Koth had even lived half his life.