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“Seeeeeei! You coming to eat? Dinner is ready!” Tooru’s voice, high-pitched and purposefully whiny, pulls Issei out of his creative zone and back to reality. Fair to say, as the blank page in front of him stands as proof, the creative zone has yet to bear any fruit. The empty page blinks with a cursor on the first line, judgingly. If electronic paper held any memory, it would show only a few lines, typed and erased and typed again. Creative block is no joke.
“Sei…”
Tooru’s voice crouches closer, warm air hits the back of Issei’s neck when his boyfriend – one of his boyfriends – leans over his shoulders and stares at the empty screen. “Give it a rest, Tooru says. “Get some food. It’ll come to you.”
Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. Maybe Issei just needs to be brave enough and start… something.
“Be there in five, okay?” he looks up at his boyfriend. “Gotta try one more time.”
~*~*~
Story old as time. Get to the cave, slay the Dragon, save the Princess. The Knight has heard it a million times – after all, they teach you this protocol at the Dragonslaying 101 course. There’s always some Princess to save – kingdoms around this part of the world seem to produce them at an astounding rate. Dragons are a little harder to come by, after centuries of slaying, they’re a commodity, not a norm. But the Knight is lucky. The moment he stepped through the door of the inn, he got a pint and a royal decree and now he was off, on a journey to a distant cave where the kidnapping was rumored to happen.
Dragon means more danger and more danger means more pay. There’s enough coin on the line to buy him a nice house on the beach, maybe a new horse? Definitely enough for a vacation. The Knight needs a vacation rather badly at this point.
~*~*~
“Sounds like fiction imitating reality,” Makki’s laugh rings behind Issei. There’s a warmth to his back – his other boyfriend plops his whole weight on Issei’s shoulder as he reads the words on the screen.
“Did I miss dinner?” Issei sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah, but it’s no biggie. Tooru pack your leftovers for when you decide to emerge from your ‘zone’. What are you writing?”
“Just… scribbles. Nothing substantial. Just to get rid of this damn blank page.”
Matsukawa Issei is a writer. A decently popular one, with his most popular spicy series hitting last year’s booktok like a storm. But, as one good man once said, with great power comes great responsibility – and with great demand comes great fear of failure.
The third installment of his series has been a blank page for months now. Issei knows the time’s ticking. Even if his editor has been lenient so far – all with Christmas and family time – Issei knows it won’t last. If he can’t produce something – anything – by the end of the year, he’s screwed. Royally fucked – more so than his handsome sexy assassin protagonist stuck in the prince’s bed.
He’s been sulking about it for long enough. And if it doesn’t come – well, he might as well scribble a short story or two, see if there are still words left in him. Or is this the end. Finita. Death of the writer. The thought is terrifying at best, so Issei doesn’t allow it to fully settle, instead focusing on the body heat pressed to his back.
“You should make me into a princess,” Makki chirps. Ever the optimist that one. Issei chuckles, turning his head to hide in Makki’s neck.
“Maybe. If you get me some coffee and don’t tell Hajime. Don’t need another lecture on heart attacks,” he sighs.
“You got it!”
~*~*~
The cave’s entrance sits on the beach – very scenic. Dragons are famous for having good taste – in lounging as much as in their culinary preferences. It’s one of their distinct features. The Knight sets a quick camp, just a place for his horse to stay, far away from the fight, and covers the rest of the distance of foot.
The cave is dark. The air smells of moss and roast pork for some reason. The Knight clears his throat.
“Show thyself, foul fiend!” he exclaims in his best threatening voice – another thing they teach you in Dragonslaying 101. A distant snort and a puff of smoke is his only answer. Weird… Usually, it doesn’t take much to provoke a fight. Hell, usually the princess would at least let out an excited gasp, happy for her salvation. None of that happens. The Knight clears his throat again. Confused by the change in protocol, he drops the flowery speech. “Come out! I’m not leaving without a Princess!”
“You’ll be staying here for a while then,” someone answers from the inside. Soon “someone” shapes into a person when a guy steps out of the entrance. Tall, regal, clad in imported silks and furs, shiny with royal jewels sprinkled over his hands and neck. “There is no Princess here. Only a Prince.”
Funny, the Knight only now realizes that the royal decree never specified who was kidnapped. But in all of his journeys, he has never seen a Dragon with a taste for male heirs.
Desperately, the Knight still clings to the protocol. “It matters not,” he exclaims. “I shall be your savior nonetheless…”
~*~*~
“There you go, savior,” Hajime slides a cup of coffee closer to Issei’s hand before he peeks at the page. “Oh, nice twist. Was that a bribe to Makki?”
“It was. For not telling you about coffee. Fucking traitor,” Issei sight. His outrage only makes Hajime smile.
“It’s not his fault. I caught him red-handed,” he explains. “I’m not going to lecture you. We all know you’re a horrible addict.”
“And you still love me,” Issei grins, sticking his nose into the cup.
The scent is bitter, slightly burned, just the way Issei likes it. Paired with Hajime’s stubble rubbing against Issei’s temple as his boyfriend leans over his shoulder to read the nonsense scribbles.
“You know. it’s a real shame the Dragon is getting slayed,” Hajime draws his words. “Seems like they’re already pretty much extinct. Maybe the Knight should do something about it.”
Issei laughs, turning his head to press a kiss to a stubbly cheek. “Maybe I’ll make *you* into a dragon. As a thank you for not giving me an earful.”
~*~*~
“There is no Dragon, you steel-for-brains,” the Prince rolls his eyes. The Knight blinks, still trying to peek into the cave behind him.
“But the royal decree—” he starts.
“Doesn’t even say it’s a Prince who got kidnapped. does it?” the Prince points out. The Knight has nothing to argue against that. “My father is being dramatic,” the Prince explains. “I wasn’t kidnapped. I went away on my own. And my Dragon.. well. Come on out,” he calls back to the cave.
Another figure steps out from the darkness. It’s not a dragon – it’s a person. Two legs, to arms, a face. A face covered in scales and spikes, sure, but a human face nonetheless.
“What are you?” the Knight gasps.
“Just a smith,” the Dragon speaks. In a human voice, in a familiar tongue, as if they are having a normal conversation in the inn. As if the Knight's whole livelihood has not just been turned upside down. “I was cursed,” the Dragon explains.
“And I was supposed to be a cure,” the Prince adds. “Soulmate’s kiss? Ever heard about that one? Supposedly breaks any curse. But of course, my father wasn’t too happy with my soulmate being a cursed smith.”
“It didn’t work though,” the Knight points out. “Unless you are not soulmates?”
“Oh, we are,” the Prince shakes his head. “He was ten feet taller and breathed fire before. Now… we just think I’m not the *only* soulmate. You know?”
No. The Knight doesn’t know. The Knight had aced his Dragonslaying 101 – and all the rest of Dragonslaying courses. The Knight has wandered lands and kingdoms for most of his life and slayed more dragons that one can count – and yet he has never heard about a curse like this or multiple soulmates for that matter. The Knight, begrudgingly, thinks that perhaps vacation is too optimistic. Perhaps retirement is more in order.
“Don’t you worry your pretty steelhead over it,” the Prince smiles brighter than a million stars. “Toss that royal decree into the sea. And none would be the wiser. My father has more sons than he needs, he can stand to lose one.”
“But how can I go back?” the Knight argues. “I have never left a job unfinished!”
“Then perhaps you just… don’t go back,” the Dragon speaks. They exchange a glance, him and the Prince, and return their attention to the Knight. “We are not going to cause trouble. We’ll sell some jewels, maybe start a farm. I promise not to kidnap any other royal children. But maybe you would like to keep an eye on us and make sure I hold to my end of the deal?”
The Dragon smiles. The Knight never realized a smile with so many sharp teeth could be this charming. Yes… perhaps.
A farm doesn’t sound all that bad after all.
~*~*~
“You’re done?”
Tooru chirps into his ear just as Issei puts the last period down. How long have he been here? How long have they all been here, is a new question that stands when Issei turns to find all three of his boyfriends chilling in his office.
“We wanted to let you write, but I was this close to bribing Hajime,” Makki grins. “To carry you to bed. It’s past midnight, you words-for-brains.”
“Really? I didn’t realize…”
It felt nice to be able to write again. Issei lets Tooru settle on his lap and scan through the short story – a story that won’t see publishing, a story that was nothing more than a little comfort and an appetizer. And it worked. Issei felt the itch in his fingers, ideas buzzing a swarm in his brain. He can do it now. He can write his next book. He thinks he has finally found what was lacking in it.
“Hey,” Tooru pokes him back to reality. “So if Makki’s a Prince and Hajime’s a dragon… where am I then?”
Issei chuckles. His hands wrap around Tooru’s waist, pulling him closer to Issei’s chest. Their other halves join, each from both sides, peeking into Issei’s writing.
“Well,” Makki speaks first. “There’s always a horse…”
“I hate you. All of you,” Tooru pouts.
“You love us!”
“You take back that horse comment right now!”
Issei’s laugh rings through the room, cutting the budding argument. “I’ll write you in as a sexy forest witch, how does that sound?” he promises.
“That sounds like a tomorrow ordeal,” Hajime chimes in. “Nobody’s writing anything today, we all need sleep.”
“Old man~”
“I prefer the ‘responsible’ one”
“At least one of us is”
“That’s why we keep you around”
They make it to the bedroom, accompanied by banter and jabs and kisses and hugs and more love than one heart can fit. “I’m gonna finish my series,” Issei says.
“Of course you are,” Tooru yawns at him. “Maybe your main series can fit a sexy witch too.”
“It can definitely fit more love,” Issei agrees.