Kenma & Kuroo, Dragons
Kuroo had always assumed that when his dragon finally hatched, it would be a frightening, fire-breathing beast of a thing -- he imagined giant fangs, maybe with venom, and huge, leathery wings, big enough to block out the sun. He imagined mighty roars and intimidating fierceness. He imagined himself riding the dragon into battle and his enemies quailing just at the sound of its name, which would, of course, be appropriately epic. Barothor or Galelean or Taketona. Lots of syllables, very medieval.
Yes, Kuroo had had it all planned out for a very long time.
So, of course, when the time came, all of his hopes and expectations were completely wrong.
The egg hatched in the middle of the night with little fanfare. Kuroo supposed later that he should have taken that as his first warning. He simply woke up in the morning to find a small dragonling curled up in the incubator where his egg had been. It was about the size of a cat, maybe, all twisted in on itself until it resembled a pile of rocks more than it did a dragon. Or any living creature at all. Still. It wasn’t every day your dragon hatched, and Kuroo leaned over the incubator excitedly, waiting for the little dragonling to sense his presence and wake up and complete their Bond.
And he waited.
Kuroo liked to consider himself a patient sort of person, but after fifteen minutes he was twitchy and decidedly out of patience, and so he reached into the incubator and brushed the tip of his index finger down the pebbled skin.
The baby dragon opened one golden eye, looked at him dismissively, and then rolled over and went back to sleep.
“Hey,” Kuroo said, a little surprised. “Wake up.”
Then the dragonling spoke for the very first time, in a quiet, raspy, but pleasant voice.
“No,” it said.
Kuroo stared at it. He was flabbergasted. This wasn’t what dragons were supposed to do. Everything he’d read said that newborn dragons were energetic and playful and eager to Bond… and yet here was this one, who didn’t even seem to care that he was there. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.
As a matter of fact, he was a little hurt. “Don’t you want to Bond with me?”
The dragonling peeked up at him, considering. Finally, it said. “We already are. From inside my egg.”
Kuroo blinked. “Oh.”
The dragonling shifted a little, stretched a leg, and then stretched its neck towards Kuroo. “I’m Kenma,” it said, and then, “You’re warm.”
It sounded like a demand, but Kuroo wrapped a careful hand around it and it curled happily against his chest.
It was so small, and warm, and he could feel its sleepy contentment. And that was all he needed.
“We’re going to be together forever,” he whispered, and the dragon licked the palm of his hand and made a quiet, happy sound.