Through The Fire And The Flames (3/20)
Title: Through The Fire And The Flames
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Hikaru-centric, side pairings to come!
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Um... Dragons?
Genre: Fantasy AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: The village where Hikaru and his friends live has a bit of a dragon problem. While most of the people in the town want the dragons wiped out, Hikaru believes that there has to be some good in the creatures. Through a shocking near-death experience, he comes to find that there is more to the dragons than even he could imagine.
A/N: This is a bit of a monster! I wrote it for National Novel Writing Month, which is all about writing 50,000 words (the minimum length for a work to be considered a novel) in one month. I finally got through editing the whole thing, so I decided to to begin posting it. The idea was taken a bit from How To Train Your Dragon (if you care about that idk) and I hope you enjoy it! Banner cred:
ryosukekoibito
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2
The next morning, Hikaru was the first one awake. Yabu was still pressed close to his side, and his body heat was highly appreciated. Hikaru tried to get a look at his surroundings, craning his neck to look further into the cave. Sun was shining into the chasm, and the two dragons, as huge and intimidating as ever, were curled around each other. Hikaru was able to finally able to see the second dragon in proper lighting, and its colors were astounding.
All yellows and oranges and reds, the dragon looked like living, breathing fire. The bulk of its body was the lighter colors, but the ends of its legs, tail, and other points darkened into a deep red. Unlike the blue dragon this one had horns, long and slender, protruding from a place on its skull right above its ears. Its tail was curved to a point at the end, and its wings were huge in almost a disproportionate way, with hooks on the tops. The wing moved by the injured shoulder hung limply to the side, while the other was over the blue dragon’s back, serving as a shield from both the sunshine and the chilling wind. The two dragons were a sight to look at, and especially so together, the fiery colors contrasting with the icy whites and blues.
Yabu stirred, effectively breaking his train of thought.
“Good morning.” Hikaru said as soon as his eyes were open. Yabu wasn’t at all bashful about their proximity, blinking at him drowsily.
“My nose is cold.” was his response, and they laid there for a while longer, neither feeling like getting up and facing the icy wind. Finally though they did, and Hikaru decided that old, near-freezing sheep meat wasn’t truly that bad, despite getting some wool in between his teeth.
“I know what we should do today.” Yabu declared as the sat on the ledge, their legs dangling off, trying to get the sun to warm them.
“What?” Hikaru asked back, genuinely curious to hear his proposition.
“Try to find some way down from here.”
Hikaru didn’t have it in him to ask what they would do if they did manage to find a way off of the ledge and found themselves surrounded by water. Instead, he nodded.
“Sure. I bet we could find something.”
There was a loud, high-pitched screeching noise from inside the cave, making both Hikaru and Yabu jump. The sound was closest to the call of a bird, except louder and much more terrifying. They were met with the sight of the orange dragon’s mouth closing, eyes half open, seeming to be recovering from a yawn. Dragons yawned?
The noise woke the blue dragon too, Hikaru and Yabu watching as they arched their backs, stretched their legs, flapped out their wings, and shook their tails, waking themselves up. The orange dragon nudged the blue one with its face again, getting a low grumble in response.
“They’re sort of cute.” Hikaru found himself saying. Yabu raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
“What?” He asked. “They are!”
“Sure.” He answered, obviously not quite agreeing. “Come on.”
Rolling on his stomach, Yabu peered over the edge of the cliff. After watching the creatures wake themselves up for a few seconds more, Hikaru joined him, looking down for handholds or foodholds they could use to climb down. All he could truly focus on though, was the roughly crashing water below.
“There’s one!” Yabu exclaimed after some time. The craggy rock face had plenty of tiny ledges, but the one that Yabu was pointing to looked like it could be large enough to fit someone’s foot on it.
“Yeah, but there isn’t another one in that area until about twenty feet down. I’m not sure that would work out.” Hikaru answered. Yabu nodded in agreement, frowning slightly as he looked back down. After a few long moments, Hikaru became aware of something warm wisping across the back of his neck, a light snort behind them sounding incredibly close. Yabu jerked around so fast he almost teetered over the edge, letting out a shout and gripping tightly to Hikaru’s shoulder.
The orange dragon had limped over to them, now less than two feet from Hikaru’s face, eyes open and interested. It blinked and looked into the water, flattening its belly to the ground just as they had been doing, then cocked its head to the side, meeting eyes with Hikaru again.
“We’re looking for a way down.” Hikaru said, not knowing if explaining would do any good at all. “We really want to go home.”
The orange dragon got itself back to its feet, letting out a chirp from the back of its throat before padding away on large, clawed feet.
“What was that?” Yabu hissed. “Do you think it understood you?”
“I have no idea.” Hikaru answered honestly. It almost seemed like it did, but thinking that they could communicate through spoken word was a nearly ludicrous idea. After a moment of thought Yabu shrugged, and they resumed their activities.
After another half hour of looking over the edge on their stomachs, Yabu let out a sigh, rolling on to his back and puffing his cheeks out. His nose and cheeks were red from the wind, and they hadn’t managed to find any way to climb down. Despite it being his idea, Yabu did not seem very surprised by the outcome.
“I can’t believe they haven’t attacked us yet.” Yabu confessed. “There weren’t many dragon sightings where I used to live because it’s so far inside the city walls. When Takaki would tell me horror stories about dragons coasting in and burning things up, I imagined creatures much more vicious than these ones. I mean, I have seen people getting injured and stuff, but the way he would talk about dragons was really unforgiving.”
“Why did you move out to the peninsula when the city is so much safer?” Hikaru asked. Everyone knew about their dragon problem, so coming to the coast willingly seemed like a foolish idea.
“My dad is a doctor.” Yabu answered. “This place needs doctors way more than the inland places do. He couldn’t really get any work, either. Takaki’s dad and mine wrote back and forth while my dad was looking for work, and in the end he managed to convince us to move. I’m the youngest in my family, so between myself, my older brother, and my older sister, my parents figured we would be able to look after each other well enough.”
“I’m the youngest in my family too.” Hikaru said. “Well, except for my sister’s daughter, but my sister and her husband moved away when they found out she was pregnant. She didn’t want to raise her kid around dragons, which makes sense. I wouldn’t want to either.”
Yabu made a noise in agreement, and they sat for a few minutes, silence falling around them.
“Let's go inside the cave walls a little.” Hikaru proposed. “It’ll block the wind. And, I mean, you look pretty cold, so…”
“I’m perfectly fine.” Yabu said pointedly, but he was in the process of standing. “But if you’re cold, I might not object.”
Hikaru laughed. “I’m not very interested in letting my fingers fall off.” he said.
“...okay.” He sounded reluctant, not taking his eyes off the dragons as they walked into the stone mouth.
“Wow.” It was considerably warmer inside the cave, from both the absence of wind chill and their increased proximity to the living furnaces in the back corner. Hikaru rubbed his hands together, letting out a sigh.
“This was a good idea.” Yabu admitted, making Hikaru grin. They sat and talked a bit more, but time seemed to pass incredibly slowly with nothing to do. After three games of ‘Twenty Questions’ and four games of ‘I Spy’, they had effectively run out of things to do.
“Tic-Tac-Toe?” Yabu suggested, making Hikaru laugh. Being in the same space with the dragons had brought the communication idea back to Hikaru’s mind and he glanced over the blue dragon, thinking. There wasn’t anything else to do and no way to leave, so there wasn’t much harm in trying.
“Hey.” Hikaru called out. The blue dragon turned its head, making eye contact. Yabu’s eyes went wide, and he hit Hikaru on the arm.
“Can we go home?” Hikaru asked, his voice a bit louder than it probably needed to be, enunciating as clearly as he could. “We want to go home.”
The dragon simply looked at him and he looked back, refusing to break eye contact. Finally though, the dragon glanced away, and Hikaru’s hopes of communication were dashed. When he looked back at Yabu, he was wearing an expression the suggested he was doubting Hikaru’s sanity.
“It was worth a shot.” Hikaru explained with a shrug. “So, Tic-Tac-Toe?”
Yabu smiled, and their games resumed. Slowly but surely, the day came to a close, and Hikaru was asleep by the time the moon had risen into the sky. Not much time could have passed before he was being shaken awake. It was the middle of the night, if the moon’s position was anything to go by, stars winking down at him. Yabu’s eyes were wide, and the urgency with which he was trying to wake him made Hikaru jolt into a sitting position, immediately worried and awake.
“What is it?” He asked, feeling the need to keep his voice hushed.
“Listen!” Yabu whispered sharply, and HIkaru did, keeping his head still and glancing around through his peripherals. A break in the light wind allowed voices to reach his ears. Two of them, distinctly male, talking quietly to each other.
“Who… Where is it coming from?” Hikaru asked. Yabu pointed into the cave.
“There.” He said. “Do you think someone has come to rescue us?”
“I don’t know.” Hikaru whispered back. The two of them crept closer, Hikaru listening more intently. There was something in the middle of the cave letting off a warm glow, creating the silhouettes of two people sitting together, one playing the the fingers on the other’s hand. The one with his hand being held was a tall, lanky male, and the other was shorter but not by much, his shoulders broader. They were sitting crosslegged in front of an oil lamp, backs to Hikaru and Yabu, and the thinner one’s shirt had been discarded, his right shoulder a mess of scabbing and dried blood. Who were they?
“They want to go home.” The injured one was saying. “We really should take them back soon.”
Hikaru took in a sharp breath as he realized--they are talking about us. Yabu seemed to understand that at the same time Hikaru did, grabbing Hikaru’s upper arm tightly.
“But you can’t go anywhere, and I can’t just leave one of them with you.” Was the response. “What if they hurt you? What if--”
“I can defend myself, Keito.”
Hikaru wanted to listen longer, wanting to figure out what was actually going on and if everything was safe before they made their presence known--because somehow these strangers weren’t strangers at all--but Yabu had a different idea.
“Excuse me--” He spoke up, his words making the two jump terribly and turn, the one that had been called Keito shifting quickly in front of his injured companion. Their reactions surprised Yabu into a temporary silence, but then he continued.
“Are you here to help us? We were taken here by dragons, and we want to go home.”
He spoke slowly, but even so they just sat there, staring back. Hikaru was concerned by the look in Keito’s eyes--slightly threatened and extremely unsure. He decided to speak up.
“You were talking about us just now, weren’t you?”
His only response was Keito’s gaze being shifted from Yabu to himself. He decided to try another question.
“Who are you?”
This question seemed to be a more comfortable one, the taller man’s shoulders relaxing as he placed a hand on Keito’s shoulder. He slid a reassuring touch down his arm before finding his hand, holding it.
“I’m Nakajima Yuto, and this is Okamoto Keito.”
“How did you two get up here?” Yabu asked.
“Well…” Yuto shared a look with Keito before answering, as though asking permission for what he was about to say. He didn’t give any indication of agreement that Hikaru could tell, but Yuto continued anyway. “We’re the ones that brought you here. We’re sorry.”
Hikaru’s initial reaction was confusion, and it stayed.
“...what?”
“Keito and I, um…” Yuto glanced at Keito again, who this time gave the slightest of shrugs. “We’re the dragons that brought you here.”
Hikaru’s second reaction was that this was some kind of terrible joke. Yabu seemed to agree, chuckling slightly. The laugh didn’t hold much humor in it though.
“The thing about that is that you two aren’t dragons. You’re people. You’re…”
Yuto and Keito weren’t laughing, Yabu trailing off.
“You’re not joking.”
Two simultaneous head shakes.
“How--”
“We can shapeshift.”
The words tumbled out of Keito’s mouth rapidly, clumsily, and he flushed, clamming up as soon as he had spoken. Yuto gave a bit of a half-smile at that, but his eyes were watchful, carefully gauging Hikaru and Yabu’s reactions. Not that there was much to watch; they both just stood there, Hikaru able to feel his brain fall into a state of disbelief.
The Nakajima Yuto one had an ugly injury on his right shoulder, in the same place that the orange dragon had been injured, on the same side and in the same way. That would make Okamoto Keito the blue one, but--
“That’s impossible.” Yabu declared, taking a seat on the cave floor. “You’re dragons. You’ve always been dragons.”
“Should I…?” Yuto began, turning to Keito, unable to finish his question by the way Keito shook his head.
“You’re hurt. I’ll do it.”
It wasn’t until Keito was giving himself a rather wide girth from everyone else that Hikaru realized that was about to happen. He was going to give a demonstration. Keito turned his back and undressed quickly, then stood very still. In the moonlight his bones began to shift under his skin, growing and stretching and jutting out strangely, the joints and muscles displacing themselves. The tan hue to his skin was replaced by the cerulean color that Hikaru was coming to recognize, and while the change was hard to watch Hikaru kept his eyes open. Within moments, the blue and white dragon was dwarfing them in his moonlit shadow. Yuto was beaming up at him, and Yabu’s eyes were so wide that for an instant Hikaru was worried that they just might pop out.
“You’re magnificent!” Yuto called, and Keito let out a little rumble in response.
“Can dragons understand us?” Hikaru had to ask.
“Please, stop saying ‘us’ like we’re not included.” Yuto answered, not sounding angry, but very firm.
“Sorry.”
Yabu turned to Hikaru. “Pinch me.” He requested. That made Yuto laugh a little, Hikaru shaking his head, Keito’s giant form shrinking down behind them.
“I’m not going to pinch you.” Hikaru said, but without hesitation Yabu just pinched himself on the arm, letting out a yelp. Keito was back, and his eyes held a scared, unsure look.
“Believe us yet?” Yuto asked.
“I… I guess so.” Hikaru answered. As impossible as it seemed, they had just seen the transformation with their own eyes, and they weren’t dreaming, so what else were they supposed to assume? “Are all dragons also…?"
“Are all dragons people too?" Yuto asked. "Yeah."
"Why haven't you told anyone?"
“Well… We didn’t want to tell the two of you because we weren’t sure how you would react. Neither of you are swinging your weapons at us, so your reactions are better than we had hoped.”
Hikaru’s mind was swimming with possibilities. If only he had known. If only he had known everyone could just communicate with each other, there the a possibility that they could settle their differences, and end all of the attacks and fighting… Dragons could not be seen as monsters anymore. Hikaru decided to take his idea and run with it.
“If we all knew, then we could communicate, and work out everything, and move past--”
“If I remember the stories correctly, it was your family that cast us out, remember?”
That made Hikaru falter for a moment. Yuto was right; as the lore put it, Hikaru’s lineage and another family had gotten into a deadly argument, and when Hikaru’s side had won, the other line and their followers had been exiled from the mainland. Was this whole transformation business what the argument had been about? That part of the story was never shared.
“Let’s talk about major cultural shifts in the morning, okay?” Yuto sighed. “Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
Hikaru had gotten rather excited, wanting to talk about this here and now, but he heeded Yuto’s request, closing his mouth. Yabu though, had something that he wanted to know.
“Why haven’t you taken us home yet?”
Yuto turned to Keito for him to answer, and he sounded rather apologetic as he did.
“I was panicking when I brought you two here, and I’m sorry about that… I wanted to bring you back home as soon as possible, but it would be hard to be careful with the both of you, and I didn’t want to leave one of you here along with Yuto because he’s injured and could get hurt, and…”
The longer he talked the quicker his words were so he stopped himself, falling silent.
“Were you going to keep us here forever?”
“No.” Keito replaced his hand in Yuto’s, a small and self-comforting gesture. He was nervous. “Yuto is healing slowly, so I was going to fetch some friends of mine to help. I was planning on going out tonight, while you two were sleeping, but…”
But that plan had been completely shot to pieces, and Hikaru almost felt apologetic, because the concern for Yuto in Keito’s eyes so real and so strong.
“You still can go, if you want. We won’t hurt him. I promise.”
Hikaru could tell that Keito didn’t believe him, and Hikaru couldn’t really blame him for that. The moon had made its way quite far across the sky, and Yuto sighed, laying his head heavily on Keito’s shoulder.
“Let’s make promises and talk and everything when the sun comes up, please?”
He was exhausted, understandably so, and they all agreed to go to sleep, though Hikaru wasn’t sure if his brain would let him. This was completely incredible. The dragons could transform. Into people.
They all took separate places on the floor of the cave, closer than they had been before, and Yabu wriggled for quite a while before deciding he was comfortable. Keito and Yuto hadn’t laid down yet, their silhouettes standing still and speaking in hushed, concerned voices. Keito’s face was full of worry, and Hikaru caught sight of Yuto pulling Keito in for a quick kiss before he closed his eyes.