Archive of Our Own

It was becoming clear that seventeen was Kris’ lucky number. It was after that birthday that he was thrust into senior year. He was finally entrusted with a learner’s permit, giving him the chance to drive the van around town and abroad. It was when his mother finally decided he could be entrusted with several things without her direct supervision, among which were the computer and the house as a whole. Before, Toriel would either drag him to her meetings and business trips for however long it took, or just drop him off at Asgore’s place. Now he was the man of the house, and he was, in her eyes, finally old enough to have it all to himself in her absence.

Only today, he wasn’t alone. His mother wouldn’t be back in three more days.

Far as Kris was concerned, this was Susie’s free ticket to the Dreemurr house, and the dragoness could hardly agree more.

Especially when she saw the bills in Kris’ wallet. “Dude, a hundred bucks?!”

“Yep. Mom gave it to me before leaving. P’ezza, QC’s, all that.”

“Oh dude, we’re gonna pig out!” The dragon girl crashed onto the sofa with about half the force needed to snap its frame. “Did you already order something?”

“Yeah. Meat Lover’s. It’ll be here in a minute.” Kris replied, checking the time on his phone.

Susie’s mouth watered at the thought of all that sausage, bacon, ham, and pepperoni. “Oh GOD yes…”

“And I got those brownies with the hot fudge filling…” Now it was Kris’ turn to drool. “Mmn...You’ll have to fight me for those, Sooz.”

“You know better than to challenge me, dork!” She snarked. Still, knowing her friend’s love for chocolate, she had no will to back that up. “Nah. You have those, bud.”

“You bet I will.” Kris had something else to ask before a knock at the door interrupted him. “Oh! That’s gotta be him! Good timing too.”

Susie’s snout snapped towards the door like it was caught on a fishhook. No nylon line however could reel her in quite like that fresh, savory scent. “Oh my god, Kris hurry up and pay the guy!”

“Ahaha! Okay, sheesh!” The human laughed at the hungry haze in her eyes as he fidgeted with his wallet at the door.

He opened it and handed the twenty over to Burgerpants, who handed him his pizza, drinks, and brownies. “Here ya go, little buddy!”

Kris produced another five from his pocket. “Thanks, BP. Here.”

A five buck tip was a better tip than anyone else in town was liable to give him, and he could only ever appreciate that. “Thanks, lil’ dude.”

“Piiiizzaaaaa…” A purple zombie rested its drooling maw over the human’s shoulder. “Give more pizza…”

“Got twelve more bucks?” Whether they knew it or not, it wasn’t a joke. There were several pies in his bag that he wouldn’t mind selling, then blaming The Warrior for getting the orders wrong when people called about their pizzas.

“Kris, give him twelve more bucks.”

The boy wasn’t about to hamper Burgerpants’ hustle, nor deny his best friend’s wishes. “Whatcha got?”

“Uhh, cheese, Ice, body spray, and another meat lover’s.”

Kris didn’t even need to hear Susie’s input - not that she was being vocal anyway, just growling while nudging him with her snout. “Hehe. Uh, meat lover’s.”

Another twenty bucks and the pie was in his hands, at least for a grand total of two seconds before Susie hugged it to her chest and scurried off into the living room. “Thanks, Burgers.”

“Any time, dude.”
___________

Halfway through their second Gozira movie of the night, three quarters of one pizza remained sitting idly on the countertop. The empty brownie box mingled with flowers in the trash can, and Susie held the last of its contents on a paper plate next to her and Kris as the beasts on the screen roared as loud as the speakers on the old analog set could convey. Flashes of fiery blue gleamed off the grease on the last bite of pizza in Susie’s hand while the titular monster incinerated his winged enemy and the rubble that pinned him down in a breath of atomic fire.

Susie’s brow raised. “Damn dude, that’s intense.”

“Isn’t it?” Kris replied, adjusting himself as he laid across her lap. “Told you this movie was good!”

“Yeah, but it’s a shame they couldn’t have shown us more of this in the first half.” The dragon shrugged in sync with Gozira as he brushed the bug guts off his shoulder. “That first fight could have been so much cooler if we weren’t just watching it through news reports.”

Kris felt like he had heard that argument out of Berdly’s mouth a million times. For some reason, it sounded a lot more convincing coming out of Susie’s, though he obviously wasn’t going to admit that out loud. “I mean yeah, but… I still like it.”

As the second insectoid awoke and reared its ugly head, Susie nodded. “It’s definitely making up for lost time.”

“Oh you’re gonna love this!” The boy shimmied in his seat as the final two combatants sized each other up while tilt-rotors full of soldiers took off in the background. “Gnarliest fight in the movie, right here!”

“More like the second fight in the movie.” Susie snarked, noogying her boyfriend while the monsters exchanged blows.

“Okay, Miss Monster-Movie Connoisseur.” Kris rolled his eyes. He knew she was only taking the piss. That and the way she rested her snout on his head made a lot of her snark much more palatable.

But even if he didn’t mind it, she knew not to lay it on too thick. A sleepover and pizza on her host’s tab wasn’t a courtesy she could say she had ever gotten before, and she wasn’t about to repay that with salty quips.

Instead, she resorted to sugar, running her fingers through that lovely auburn hair of his while her nose loudly helped itself to the sweet apple scent wafting off of it.

“I don’t care how many times I’ve said it.” The dragon hummed, dragging her nostrils all over his scalp. “You smell good, Kris.”

The human couldn’t help but notice the juxtaposition of her affections against the screeching roars on screen. “Didn’t know this kind of stuff would get you feeling romantic.”

“I mean, hey…” The dragon chortled as Gozira screeched out to its crippled opponent, lording over his domain. “He’s just claiming his territory, right?”

“Claiming hi-? Oh!”

He was interrupted by a big purple maw bending down with puckered lips on his cheek. “Well, let me just claim mine, then.”

As much as Kris loved this movie, he couldn’t keep his eyes open, even for its climax. The gusts from Susie’s nostrils, the softness of her lips, the sensation of her sheer size tickling down to the small of his back while she held him close, all of it a deluge of bliss pouring over his senses, and he was thirsty for every last drop. There weren’t any more quips or jokes to make. The boy was content with laying his head on the dragon’s shoulder, basking in her affection.

“Consider me claimed.” The human cooed.

Susie’s snout met the boy’s nose and the two melted together for a second. “I already do.”

Kris sighed in contentment while his girlfriend continued to nuzzle him, opening his eyes only when she stopped. When they did, they landed on a plate with one brownie left over, and Kris’ felt his mouth watering anew. “You uh… you claim that too?”

“Nah.” She didn’t hesitate to relinquish the last of the dessert, holding it over Kris’ expecting mouth. “Open up, dude.”

Kris would make like a baby bird for his chocolate fixation practically on command. He didn’t care how much it made Susie laugh. “Ahhhh…”

“Pfft-haha! Come on, you gotta open up wider!”

“Ah cahn’t!” Kris protested “Dra’ it!”

She compiled with a *pop* of her lips as she dropped the brownie, followed by laughter as it almost perfectly capped his maw like a cork in a wine bottle. “HAHAHA! Oh my God, Kris, wait! Wait a minute, I gotta take a pic!”

He would have protested her pulling out her phone if he wasn’t at least a little curious over how this made him look. There was a brief flash, and then that wonderful, rich, decadent chocolate flavor spilling all over his closing mouth as the fudge erupted.

Susie wagged her head with a smile, first at the picture, then at its subject. Kris was not the kind of guy most would consider “dreamy” or “charming.” Not in the traditional sense at least. That didn’t matter to her. Not in the least. If anything, it assured her that the market for Kris was hers and hers alone.

“Mmm! Man, that’s good…” Kris smooched each of his fingertips to get as much of that chocolate down his gullet as he could. “Starting to wish I ordered more.”

“Well, it’s not like you finished…” Susie chuckled at the sight of melted chocolate smeared all over the boy’s face. “You uh… you missed some there, Krissy.”

His eyes shot open and his lips flexed to find the feeling of wet fudge where it shouldn’t have been. “Huh? Where?”

Kris expected to feel the moisture of the dessert smeared somewhere around the edges of his lips. For a split second, he thought he had it, somewhere above the right upper lip, but someone else had gotten to it first. Something wetter and stronger and more substantial. He knew the taste already. It was strong and smoky with a scent of burnt oak, and the slightest hint of it made him groan and sigh into the mouth of his draconic lover. The human’s vision blurred under wavering, flitting eyelids, and his words melted off the tip of his tongue and onto hers with the taste of rich chocolate.

“Mmmnn… man, you’re right. You probably should have ordered more.” Susie hummed, parting from Kris with a suckle on his bottom lip. “It compliments your taste.”

Kris usually took the lead whenever he and Susie got rosy-cheeked. To see Susie take charge like this was refreshing, surprising, and flattering all at once. To be reminded of how deep her passion for him ran flushed the human’s cheeks scarlet.

“Susie!” Kris meekly pleaded and tried to hide his face. “God, you’re making me go red…”

“Yeah, I can see that! It’s all over your face!” she teased, smooching Kris’ blushing cheek with wet, sloppy lips. “Maybe I can kiss it all off, like the chocolate!”

Kris didn’t even bother protesting anymore. He knew he wanted it. More importantly, he knew she knew he wanted it, and that trying to pretend otherwise was a fool’s errand. Instead, he laid his head back and let the dragoness love on him. Unconditionally, unobstructed, and unopposed. Feel her lips smooch down on his skin while her warm, wet tongue dove between them to lick and taste him. The feeling was electrifying and soothing all at once. Shivers traveled down the boy’s spine at the feeling of Susie’s massive looming frame while contented sighs oozed from his quivering lips as Susie’s own mouth attended to him.

“So soft…” The dragon hissed, loathe to part her lips from him to speak even though the words had been begging to leave her throat since that first kiss. “Mmmhh…! Kris, you’re so soft…”

Her mouth had wandered all over his cheeks and down to the nape of his neck, and the sensations made Kris swoon and tremble. “S-Susie! What’s gotten into you?”

It wasn’t that his tone was scolding. Far from it, actually. It sounded happy and content, but also embarrassed and maybe a little overwhelmed. That, and it hung over the closing frames of the movie with all of the embarrassing context that entailed. Did she really get this riled up over a movie? Over Kris letting her hang out? Did that make her look clingy? Overemotional? It wasn’t his question, but her own questions that broke Susie’s confidence at the foundations, and her lips retreated while her throat cleared.

“Um, *ahem*, nothing, sorry.”

The warmth of her looming frame was gone, and it had left the human feeling cold and confused. “Susie? I wasn’t getting on your case. It’s okay.”

“Nah, nah, I just…” The dragon scrambled for a way out of this conversation, and every word she could come up with was a dead end. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all… pushy like that.”

“I didn’t think it was pushy.” Kris consoled, raising his hand up to Susie’s cheek. “I was kind of encouraging it, if you remember.” 

Kris’ words of affirmation made for a medicine that was slow to kick in, but the dragon took them in nonetheless. “You sure that wasn’t too much? Like, I wasn’t getting too touchy there?”

The words hadn’t even left Kris' mouth before he felt flustered by them, but it didn’t stop him from saying them. “I like it when you touch me.”

Susie’s eyes had been darting around the room up until she heard him say that. Then they froze and fixed themselves back onto the blushing, soft human with a glistening moisture on his cheeks. There was some sort of witty or teasing reply somewhere in her head, but she didn’t find it in time to pass it on to her mouth, so instead she just said,

“Wow dude…” Her breathing picked up and her eyes widened. “You really do, huh?”

Kris felt no need to lie, even if the truth made him blush harder. “Susie, I love it.”

Another answer like that, and Susie’s heart would have burst out of her chest. It was a miracle that it didn’t when, almost by impulse, she asked her next question. “Can… can I touch you some more?”

The boy replied faster than his rationally-thinking brain would have ever let him. “Yes.”

Kris hadn’t realized how much breath he had put into that answer, or how intense his eye contact had become. Susie had to respond to the need in those beautiful rubies, and sooner was better than later. Her hand went to the hem of the boy’s sweater as if she were operating on auto-pilot, like she had been planning for this all month. She’d been wanting to for so much longer than that. She promised herself in her mind that she’d pinch herself if this went on any longer.

Instead, she gently pinched the soft, pale skin along Kris’ waist, and when she heard him gasp and shudder, it was tantamount to being splashed awake with ice water. Susie snapped taut and locked eyes with her boyfriend again and was just about to ask him if he was okay when she saw a quivering, blissful smile spread across his face, brought in with a happy sigh and shutting eyelids

‘He really likes being touched this much…’ The dragoness thought to herself.

He spoke up as if he heard her say it aloud. “Susie… please, keep touching me.”

She had nothing to say to that. What Kris had just said carried a warm, loving sensuality that floored her like nothing else ever had in her life. All she could answer that with was compliance to his sweetly rendered wish with fingers gently dragging across his tender skin.

Kris sighed aloud, unfiltered and unabashed. In fact, it almost seemed like he had been holding it in, like breath held under the waters of years of being untouched by anyone but close blood. Susie may have not known the context, at least not in full, but she knew enough to understand that words weren’t needed, neither from her nor him, and so she continued caressing up and down his tummy, her claws falling into the curves and contours of his defined, but petite musculature.

But Susie wanted to see more. She wanted to see as much as he was comfortable showing.

“Take your sweater off.”

“Wha-?”

The dragon swallowed a lump as she feared she had sounded too forceful, but she reiterated herself with even more resolve and without hesitation. “Take your sweater off.”

The boy’s eyes were wide with both surprise and excitement. A shaky smile hung onto his lips. “Susie?”

Seeing that smile did wonders for the girl’s confidence. “I want to see you.”

Those words were as commanding as they were loving. Kris felt his guard lower in every way as he complied, peeling the green and yellow fabric over his head, Susie’s hands offering help and guiding his own until at last, the garment no longer obstructed him from her senses. She could see and smell more of him than she ever could before. His skin glistened with the slightest hint of sweat, and both the sight and the aroma sank their hooks into Susie’s mind in tandem. 

Kris wasn’t built like a bodybuilder, but he had defined muscles, all compactly assembled in a lithe, skinny frame that belied a delicateness to match the sheer softness of his skin. He was beautiful. Susie couldn't deny that for the world. Kris was unmistakably beautiful and she was just starting to realize it. As she realized it, she had to voice it.

“Dude, you’re so soft…” the dragoness had finally gotten full control over her words and what she wanted to say, and even then, it was hard to form any sentence long enough to take her attention away from the boy. “No scales, no scutes, no fur except on your head, and even that’s soft…”

For a moment, the human’s smile wavered and his voice lowered with his mood. “I know… ”

“Huh?”

There was nothing Kris wanted less than to ruin the mood. “Hmm? Nothing. I… God that feels good, Susie.”

If that bliss wasn’t genuine, Susie would have seen right through it, but it was, and so she didn’t. The little red flag stopped waving in her head for the moment. “You like when I touch you here?”

Her fingers were tracing between the boy’s pecs. They weren’t big and cut like a bodybuilder, but they were defined, wrapped tightly in more of that wonderfully soft skin of his.

Kris answered the dragon’s question with a swooning plea. “I like when you touch me anywhere …”

Susie felt her whole body tremble at the words ‘touch me anywhere.’ She knew that he very much meant that, and that he wouldn’t oppose her hands no matter where they went on him. There were so many places she could go with this, and her heart nearly jumped out from between her ribs at even the slightest thought of it, but to keep her chest from bursting, and to keep the night a little simpler, she put the racier thoughts back into the far recesses of her mind from whence they came, and applied her focus elsewhere.

“Can you lay on your side, Kris?”

He was more than happy to oblige. He laid facing the dragon’s chest so that he wouldn’t have to crane his neck around to look at her. Susie’s hands wavered, not knowing where to go until she lay eyes on his hand, draped over his flank. Maybe it was some parallel in her head, bringing to mind the way she wanted to hold his hand when they returned to Castle town. Maybe she was just being a sap, she thought to herself, but it made her want to hold his hand again.

She picked it up gently, holding the boy’s arm up with her thumb stroking over the back of his hand. Kris let his arm go half-limp when he noticed Susie’s other hand approaching, wanting to let her exploration go on unhindered. The human felt clawed fingers tracing along his shoulder, getting close to its underside, making him shiver and shuddering his breath.

The dragoness noticed and cracked a smile. “You sensitive there?”

“Just a little.”

He could try and hide his smile all he liked, but it clearly wasn’t working. Susie was already returning it. “Yeah… you’re not ticklish are you?”

The night was late, and while he wasn’t ready for bed just yet, he certainly had let himself get relaxed. “Come on, Sooz…”

Kris was still smiling, but susie could see his upturned brows from behind his bangs that were saying ‘maybe not now,’ and with some chagrin, she relented. “Ugh, fine, I won’t tickle you.”

The human let out a held breath. “I’ll give you a rain check on that.”

Susie stowed a mental note of that for later and reoccupied herself with Kris’ arm. He wasn’t too much smaller compared to her, but he was small enough that she could stretch his whole arm out and have plenty of angle in her own arm to spare. Her right hand ran up its entire length like she was folding a blanket, her thumb catching in the crook of Kris’ elbow while her eyes landed on the dark streams flowing up and down the pale landscape of Kris’ skin. Her fingertips ran along their length like rafts carried by downstream current.

She knew what they were and yet wasn’t sure if she was right about them. “Dude are these… are these your veins?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Dude, that’s wicked…” The mauve girl brought her eyes closer as her thumb pressed her boyfriend’s blood vessels, squeezing them against his ivory skin. “I can hardly see mine.”

Kris focused on the dragon’s wrists and only now noticed he could only see scales. “My skin’s just thinner I guess.”

“Yeah, I bet!”

An old switch flipped on in Kris’ head when he felt like voicing the discomfort that made him feel, and it was labeled ‘Hide.’ His face went deadpan, and so did his voice. They had lost feeling, just like his hand.

“Susie? You’re squeezing too tight.”

“Huh? Oh!” Her thumb released, and so did Kris’ blood, the skin, once pale white from pressure flushed red again. “Sorry, dude!”

“You’re fine.” Kris felt a silent relief. She didn’t seem to notice the shift in his countenance.

What he didn’t know was that she in fact did, and that she was beginning to worry. Was she being too pushy? Was she hurting him? His hand had started to look really pale… was he going to lose it if she squeezed any tighter?

She had to remind herself that at least he didn’t seem mad or in pain, and that was enough for her to power past the looming fear and back into the bliss of feeling and exploring her partner. Setting the human’s arm down, she put her hands on his flank.

“Lay on your belly for me?”

Kris felt the “hide” switch flip itself off at the sound of Susie's voice, and his smile returned. He nodded and flipped himself over, reaching out to grab the arm of the couch to let her purview his back in its completeness while he looked back at her, eager for appraisal. 

Susie saw his shoulder blades moving and the muscles in his lightly-defined back flexing in time with his adjusting posture. Their undular motion hypnotized her into tracing a claw down the valley in the middle, scraping the skin just ever so slightly. The human’s muscles twitched and shuddered at her touch in apparent sensitivity. The girl’s heart skipped beats in time with them, knowing what her boy must be feeling because of her touch, her ministrations.

“Oh man… that feels good, huh?” She meant to deliver that with a lot more confidence. Instead, she sounded a lot more timid and excited than she ever hoped to let on.

Luckily, Kris wasn’t in a teasing mood. “It feels wonderful, Susie.”

Freshly encouraged, the dragon continued to survey her treasure. She went up to the human’s shoulders, massaging his lower neck and his traps. She could feel the heat of his breath fogging up from off the surface of the couch, and it brought out some of her own as pale puffs of draconic smoke shot from her nostrils which were widening almost as much as her eyes. With deliberation, she pressed her hands into his back as she slid them down its length, letting her fingertips curl to feel that tender skin underneath. Kris swooned at her touch and she nearly swooned with him.

Then, she noticed white marks where her claws had been. “Woah, Dude!”

“Hm?”

“Kris, are you shedding? I had no idea humans could do that!”

The human looked behind him and realized with chagrin that she was mistaking his delicate skin scraping for something more impressive. “No, Susie, that's just… that’s just my skin.”

Susie was about to reply with what she thought was a witty retort, something about skin obviously involving shedding. That’s when it clicked, and she realized Kris was going deadpan again.

“O-oh shit…” Susie’s smile vanished. “Dude, I didn’t just hurt you, did i?”

There was nothing Kris wanted less than for Susie to worry, so he tried to assuage her fears while keeping his own stifled. “No, no, you didn’t hurt me. It was just a little scratching. I do it all the time.”

A little demonstration on his own arm took care of one question, but another arose when Susie scratched her own arm and yielded nothing. “Dude, you sure? My skin doesn't do that.”

“I know…”

In his efforts to hide behind a deadpan face, all he did was out himself. The dragoness felt the haze leave her completely as her heart went from skipping beats to sinking into her stomach. That was the face she saw before they were friends.

“Kris, what’s bothering you, buddy? Talk to me.”

Kris felt his heart fighting itself. He felt afraid and vulnerable. 

But that was okay around Susie. 

He pointed to his soft, unarmored, unprotected human skin, and said “This. It’s bothered me for a while.”

The dragon girl could hardly understand. “Why?”

Kris turned back over to gather himself and face his friend. “It makes me feel different. A bad kind of different.”

Susie felt her heart welling with empathy for the boy and wanted nothing more than his comfort. “I’ve felt that too. When I came here, I had nobody. You were my first friend here, Kris. Hell, you were my first friend in a long time.”

While she wasn’t on the mark, he wasn't about to discount what she had just said. Every word of it was true, and he was intimately familiar with how she had her own troubles, and that she was only trying to empathize. She was doing this all out of love. Perish the thought he didn’t reciprocate. She just needed all the information.

“I know Susie, but… it wasn’t just that.”

The dragon’s eyes widened and she shifted closer to her friend. “What do you mean?”

Kris held back tears as he dug up old, bad memories that no one but him up until this point knew he had. “At least you don’t look at your family and get reminded that you’re not like them.”

Susie saw the pictures in the kitchen flash in her mind’s eye, and all of a sudden, it all dawned on her, “Kris…”

“Every time I wake up, every time I go to school, I get reminded…” The human curled halfway into a ball, his arms wrapping around the shame of his nakedness while tears began to well in his eyes. “I don’t have horns or feathers or flames. I feel like I should have those things, but I don’t! I feel like a weakling every time I see what you or Noelle or Undyne can do…”

The dragon girl rushed to her boy’s rescue.

“Dude, you’re not weak! Remember when…” Susie swallowed a lump. She wasn’t sure this was the right memory to use, with all the shame it carried for her, but it was the first thing she could come up with, and she was short on time. “Remember that first day? That day when I was… I was kind of shitty to you and I pushed you into that locker? I was being such an asshole, but you stood up to me! I didn't want to admit it at the time but… I was impressed! You didn’t even flinch! You didn't yelp or cry or anything!”

Kris feared she might bring that up. Not because of what that memory made him feel, but because he knew she was already burdened with shame about it, and he loathed the fact that what he was about to say would only make that burden worse.

“I… I felt my ears ringing when you slammed me into that locker. I thought my head was going to split open, and when you let go of me, I thought I was going to throw up.”

The human’s fears were realized as a deep, powerful shame distilled on the girl’s face like the shadow of a thunderstorm. Her words found difficulty stringing themselves together. “Kris, I… I didn’t…”

“I just didn’t want you to see. I didn't want to look weak in front of you or anyone else.”

Susie felt a wound reopen in her heart. Her eyes struggled to contain her tears. “I’m so sorry, Kris…”

“Susie, please don’t blame yourself for it. I forgave you a long time ago. I just…” Kris corralled himself with all his might, not wanting to drag his friend into despair with him. “I just hate that there’s nothing I could have done. I hate how weak I am… I hate how even your gentlest touch has the potential to hurt me…”

“Kris…”

He dared not look in her eyes. The night was ruined and it was all his fault. His differences, his frail human body ruined it all again.

That’s when he felt two big, scaly arms wrap around him and hold him tight.

Susie understood enough. Not everything, as they had only scraped the surface so far, but that surface was transparent and cold like ice over a lake, and she could see Kris trapped under it. She remembered words she used to use. Epithets like “freak” that she had long since retired since she remembered why she used them, to single out Kris for being different. For being human. For not being a monster like her. Any animosity over that had long since left the boy, and they both knew it, but it didn’t matter. He was still hurt, even if he tried to hide it. 

Kris still loathed himself for what he was. For being different.

Susie was determined to change that right there and then.

So she kissed him. She kissed him over and over again.  Everywhere she could reach, from his face to the nape of his neck, to the middle of his chest. She felt Kris gasp, fretting for a second that it was fear or shock, then felt relief again in the gentle grasp of two arms returning her embrace. He was starting to get her message, at least the opening part, but she had more to say

And what she had to say was “Why are you ashamed of this?”

The boy had no response. He had never bothered to ask himself that question, let alone answer it.

“Kris, your body is amazing! It’s gorgeous! Why are you so ashamed of it?”

It almost sounded like she didn't understand the explanation he already gave her, but he knew from the look in her eyes that she understood everything, and that her question wasn’t made in ignorance, but in earnesty.

“Why do you look down on yourself so much? Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?

Susie could tell he had no answer, so she answered for him. “Kris, look at me.”

“S-Susie?” Kris' voice began to tremble as he anticipated words he never knew he needed to hear all his life.

The dragon held him by the shoulders and looked straight into the boy’s soul.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

The boy didn’t realize how much he needed to hear those words until the very moment he heard Susie say them. Nothing to be ashamed of . The lack of horns or claws or anything in common with his family. Nothing to be ashamed of. It flew in direct conflict with a belief he held about himself all his life, a belief which he finally realized had no answer to its contrary. A belief that couldn't hold ground against the unwavering love being shown to him and the truth that it carried.

Faced with that truth, Kris could hold onto his self hate no longer. It left him slowly, its death throes coming out in little sniffles and shudders. His breaths got heavier and deeper as he tried in vain to keep himself from going over the edge.

His efforts were in vain. He was falling anyway, but Susie was there to catch him.

The dragon held him close again, continuing to kiss him everywhere she could reach as Kris began to cry. She braced him up to herself, running a hand up and down his back to soothe his sobbing while her snout and her lips went up and down from his navel to his neck with nothing but love. In truth, she didn’t know what else she could tell him. It looked like the time for words was over and done with anyway. Everything she needed to tell him now could be said without words. No breath needed to be wasted save for what blew through her nostrils as she cuddled him, her rhythm syncing up with and steadying his. It was all she wanted. It was all he needed. It was all either of them could wish for.

The dragoness raised her head from his chest to see those cherry eyes locking with her again, filled with a grateful, honest love. She could only return it in kind.

Her voice was hushed and honeyed. “How you doin’ there, candy-apple?”

It took a second for him to come up with something short that would do his feelings justice. “I-I'm doing better...”

She caught the warble in his voice and thought she would break down on the spot. “Oh Krissy…”

“Susie… thank you.” He held her close, nestling into her shoulder. “Thank you…”

“Dude…” Susie nuzzled her human while her hand caressed up and down her back. “Your body is amazing… It’s wonderful.”

Her touch felt sweeter than ever, and he whimpered at the sensation. “S-Susie!”

The dragon had one thing left to say. One more thing that had to leave her that night and no later. “Kris, you’re perfect the way you are.”

The boy felt nearly overwhelmed by the affection and care his friend proffered him so freely. The nagging voice in the back of his mind insisted that it wasn’t deserved, that it wouldn’t be enough anyway. He wanted so bad to shut it up, to prove it wrong, but he couldn’t do it on his own.

“I want to believe you…” the boy whimpered. “I want - *snf* - I want to believe you so badly...”

“I know it won’t all go away just after tonight…” The dragoness reflected on some bad memories of her own, sharing the things of her heart so freely with her friend and lover with the same trust he put in her. “I’ve… I’ve had trouble with people judging how I look. Judging my body. Even though I’m a monster like everyone else.”

Kris understood well enough. He remembered the nasty things Berdly, Snowy and MK would say about her. Who knows what else he hadn’t heard? “They’re wrong about you. *snf* They don’t know what they’re talking about…”

“And they’re wrong about you too.”

The nagging silenced in the rear of his mind. The boy knew it wouldn’t be the last he would ever hear from it, but he knew that would be the last he would have to hear from it for the night. Even though there was no knowing when it would rear its ugly head again, even if the reprieve only lasted for the night, it was more relief than he had gotten in years.

Susie could sense that relief as a fresh wave of sobs tore itself out of the human, and she kept stroking up and down the smooth skin on his back, repeating herself and making sure her boy knew he wasn’t alone.

“They’re wrong about you, man. I don’t care who it was that said you’re different or don’t belong…” A shiver and a gasp rattled her frame before she could finish. After all that was said, it would be cowardly not to hold herself accountable. “... including me. I swear to God, you’ll never hear me say anything like that to you again, Kris. Ever .”

The human’s fingers clawed into the dragon’s scaly back as he wrestled with his catharsis. “I-I know, Susie…”

“And I don’t want to hear you telling yourself that, okay?!” The girl squeezed her friend with all her might, steadying the both of them against the surge of emotion rocking them. “Please… please don’t tell yourself that anymore.”

He didn’t know how well he could obey that order, but he owed it to her to at least try. “I… I'll make s-sure I won’t.”

“Promise?”

“...I promise.”

Kris was done crying, but the tears weren’t done falling from his eyes. The pain of years of that ugly lie was draining from him, and it brought tears of joy welling out behind it as it went, like fresh water washing away the mud of a dried creek. It flowed out of him in contented, happy mewls, over and over in an unending spring.

Susie heard it, and bathed in that bliss alongside him. She grabbed the remote and shut off the TV and the credits burned for a second on the screen, leaving them perfectly alone with each other. The dragon held her human ever closer, continuing to cuddle him as he continued to reciprocate. Neither of them kept track of time, of how long they held their embrace. Neither wanted to let go. The dark of night had long since shrouded the sky and the room with it in the absence of the TV set, but there was just enough moonlight trickling in from the windows for them to see enough of each other. Red and amber eyes glowed from behind heavy lids and through the creeping dark, and the silence finally broke.

“Susie… what time is it?”

“I don’t know.” She answered. “Feels late.”

Kris checked his phone. “It’s only ten.”

“Really?” Susie managed to answer past a powerful yawn that could have swallowed the human’s head. “Feels later than that.”

Her yawn was contagious, except Kris wasn’t able to talk through his. “Yeah… *uuughh!* It does, honestly.”

There was another pause. Then, Susie took the quilt from off the top of the couch and draped it over herself and her boyfriend. “Want to just hit the hay right here?”

He helped her settle down on top of him. It was already a foregone conclusion. “I was just thinking that.”

The dragon’s eyelids were ready to fall, but not before she got one more word in for the night. “Hey Kris?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Kris took that into the very center of his heart as he wrapped his arms around her and snuggled her close. “I love you too, Sooz.”

There was nothing left in her but a sweet, blissful coo as her consciousness began to drift. Kris answered with one of his own as he joined her in slumber. There was nothing else left but the sound of their breathing, and the faint rubbing of scales against soft, perfect skin. 

Vulnerable. Uncovered. 

And finally unashamed.

[The End]