Chapter Text
“Ha-HA!” Dragon laughed triumphantly, playing a red three on top of Aegis’s five. “One left!”
“You didn’t say unzik,” Aegis said.
Dragon’s face fell. “Why do I even have to say that?” she grumbled ruefully as she drew four cards.
Aegis shrugged. “I think the rules said it’s an Atealan word? I don’t know what it means.”
“That’s a dumb rule.”
Draco rolled their eyes and put down another card—a green three.
Perfect. Aegis smiled smugly and played his draw-2. “Sorry, Dragon,” he sing-songed.
“Oh yeah?” Dragon said mischievously. “Take this! ” She slammed another draw-2 onto the pile. “Draw four, Draco!”
Draco growled at her, and Aegis could guess what they were saying.
“Yes I can!” Dragon said defensively.
“They’re right, Dragon,” Aegis said. “The rules don’t say you can do that.”
“Well, they don’t say I can’t , do they?”
“They also don’t say you can’t win by eating all the cards. I think it’s implied.”
Draco nodded and made a sound, presumably backing Aegis up, and Dragon’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “ Fine ,” she sighed dramatically, taking the card back and drawing two more.
The game cycled through a few more intense rounds of reverses, draw-2’s, and wild cards. Both Dragon and Aegis were so focused on sabotaging each other that neither of them even noticed the bark indicating that Draco was down to their last card until it was too late.
Aegis glanced down at the eight cards in his hand as Draco soared around the room victoriously. At least he’d been closer than Dragon—not that that was saying much, as she was holding nearly half of the deck.
“That was fun.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Dragon grumbled, but she couldn’t seem to keep the smile off her face. “Draco! Don’t break anything up there!”
Draco ignored her, enjoying their victory laps.
“Alright, whatever,” she said, standing up from her cushion on the icy floor. “I’m gonna make myself some lunch. You make sure they don’t go mad with power and destroy the house.”
“Understood,” Aegis agreed with a very serious nod.
Seemingly content with that, Dragon walked into the kitchen. Moments later, a loud, dramatic groan followed.
“Aegis,” she whined, “why didn’t you tell me the bread was gone?”
In lieu of calling back, Aegis stood up and walked into the kitchen, just so he could fix her with a blank stare. After a long moment, Dragon groaned again.
“Okay, fine,” she admitted, “this one’s on me. I guess I’ll just eat some vegetables or something.” She opened a different cupboard above her head and reached inside to retrieve…
Well, it was probably a vegetable. One could infer that based on the fact that it had come out of the vegetable cupboard. It was impossible to be sure, however, when it was mushy, misshapen, and covered in white fuzz.
“...Huh,” Dragon said simply, staring at the thing with mild curiosity. “This… probably isn’t good anymore, is it?”
“Probably not,” Aegis agreed. Draco, who had stopped flying around to peer into the room, nodded.
Reluctantly, she walked over to the trash can and threw in the mysterious produce, which made an ugly splat upon collision. She wiped her hand on a dish towel and stood on her toes to peek into the cupboard.
“Ugh, they’re all like this,” she said mournfully. “Aegis, look.”
“I’d rather not,” he said. “Dragon, when was the last time you ate a vegetable?”
The silence that followed confirmed Aegis’s suspicions. He may have forgotten a few things about being alive, but even he was aware of the importance of a balanced diet.
“...I’ll go to the market,” Dragon muttered finally. “Can you clean out this cupboard while I’m gone?”
“No!” Aegis said incredulously. “It’s your food.”
Dragon shrugged. “It was worth a shot,” she said, grabbing her backpack and heading out. “See you later.”
“Get vegetables!” Aegis called after her as the door closed.
There was no response; Dragon either hadn’t heard him or was pretending not to.
Aegis sighed. Might as well do something productive while she was gone. He started taking the moldy produce out of the cupboard.
Draco barked one of their weird dragon-barks, catching Aegis’s attention. “What?”
They flew up onto the counter and knocked an empty glass onto its side.
“You… want water?”
Draco rolled their eyes and pointed a forefoot at Aegis.
“Me? What about me?”
They set the glass back upright and pushed it over again.
“Is this… a game?” Aegis asked, completely bewildered. “Why do you keep pushing it—? Oh!” he exclaimed as he finally caught on. “You’re calling me a pushover!”
Draco nodded vigorously.
“I understand now!” he said excitedly. “That’s why you were—hey, wait.” His smile fell. “I’m not a pushover!”
Draco fixed him with an unimpressed look and nodded up at the vegetable cupboard.
Aegis huffed and crossed his arms. “I’m not doing it for her. I don’t want bugs in here any more than she does.”
Still looking unconvinced, Draco gestured to the corner of the kitchen opposite the stove—the frostiest part of the room.
“…What?”
They mimed shivering.
“Yes, it’s cold; what is your point?”
They wiggled their claws like creepy-crawly legs.
“Bugs?”
They nodded, then pretended to shiver again.
“Cold?”
Another nod, then a head shake.
“Bugs, cold, no…” Aegis muttered, “bugs no cold? Cold no bugs…? Oh! Bugs don’t like the cold!”
Draco rolled their eyes but nodded all the same.
“How would you know? This place was full of spiders when I first moved in.” Before Draco could pantomime the obvious counterargument that that was before he’d frozen the place, he plowed on. “And in any case, how can you be sure there aren’t… ice bugs around here?”
Draco stared at him, as if to say, I’m not going to dignify that with a response. After a moment, Aegis groaned in frustration.
“Alright then. Fine! I suppose I’ll just leave these here to rot,” he said, slamming the cupboard shut with frustration. “Is that what you want?”
Draco shrugged, not perturbed in the slightest. Sighing in irritation, Aegis slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and dropped his forehead to the table with a bonk. He didn’t know why he was getting so worked up by this. He hadn’t been in a bad mood earlier; in fact, he had been having fun.
He just… really wished Draco would like him.
He felt a tap on his head and lifted it just enough to see the dragon in question looking at him, inches from his face.
“What?” he said flatly.
Draco set a glass upright on the table, knocked it over, pointed at Aegis, and shook their head emphatically.
Aegis smirked. “You don’t think I’m a pushover?”
They nodded seriously.
He chuckled a bit. “That’s good to hear.” After a moment, he sat up. “Do you want to… do something? We could play another game.”
Draco shrugged.
“Good enough for me,” Aegis said, standing up and going back to the living room with Draco following behind. He scanned the designated board and card game section of the bookshelf. “Let’s see… this one looks interesting.” He selected a box with a dragon on the front and held it out for Draco to see. They looked it over and pointed to the words “3+ players” on the side.
“Oh, right. Okay… that one requires three or more as well, as does this one… oh! This—wait, no, that’s five players. Why do we even have that? It looks cool, though; we should invite Riadne and Izaac over sometime to play it. Anyway… aha!” He pulled out a battered box covered in brightly colored creatures that appeared to be made out of… desserts? Sure, why not. “How’s this?”
Draco scowled and mimed rocking a baby.
“It’s for babies. Understood. It seems like our only other option is this,” Aegis said, picking up a thick box of cards. “‘Sorcery: The Congregation.’ Does that sound good?”
Draco looked the box over and shook their head.
“What? Why not?”
They started to pantomime… something, but Aegis couldn’t begin to guess what they were trying to convey. It was practically an interpretive dance.
“I’m sorry; that’s a little complicated—”
Draco stopped and nodded hard, pointing at the deck of cards.
“Oh! The game is too complicated.” Draco gave one more nod. “Well, it’s either this or ‘Dessert Domain,’ so—”
Draco didn’t let him finish, snatching the box of “Sorcery” cards out of his hands with their mouth and opening it.
Aegis stifled a laugh. “Alright, that’s settled.”
He sat down on the floor, found the rules booklet, and started to read. It wasn’t long until he was completely lost. Seeing his confused frown, Draco barked and motioned for him to hand it over. Aegis obliged and watched their frown progressively deepen as they read through it. Finally, they put it back in the box and closed the lid.
Aegis snickered. “Baby game it is.”
“Dessert Domain” turned out to be just about as juvenile and pointless as expected. It was based entirely on luck, with no strategy involved whatsoever. And yet, somehow, things were getting incredibly heated.
“I swear, if I get stuck in another caramel trap…” Aegis grumbled, drawing his next card. Fortunately, he got his wish and was able to pass the trap safely.
Draco, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Aegis cackled triumphantly as they glared at their own card and nudged their pawn to the same space he had just avoided.
“Looks like I get two turns in a row,” he sang smugly. He drew another card, moved forward as directed, drew one more, and…
“Yes!” he crowed, slamming his pawn in the middle of the Cake Kingdom. “Victory is mine!”
Draco huffed out a sigh. After a moment of consideration, they mimed putting on clothes.
“Clothes? Jacket? Uh… vest?”
They nodded and pointed at Aegis.
“Vest… me… I’m in a vest, I’m… oh,” he laughed, “I’m invested.”
Draco looked impressed at how quickly he had figured that one out. Aegis let himself feel a bit of pride about that.
Draco considered something for a second before they gestured to themself, then to Aegis, then pointed at their back foot with a shake of the head.
“Us… not foot? We got off on the wrong foot?” At Draco’s nod, he shrugged. “I suppose. I was being a bit of an idiot before, so can’t fault you for disliking me.”
Draco tilted their head side to side in a gesture that said, Well, yeah, pretty much. They drew a circle in the air with their claw.
“Circle. Round.” Draco bobbed their head excitedly at the second one and pointed again at themself. “You. You’re round?” They shook their head and spun around. “You… came around.”
Draco nodded emphatically, baring their sharp teeth in a grin.
Aegis smiled back. “Does this mean you like me now?”
They stroked their chin in a theatrically thoughtful manner, then nodded again.
It took every ounce of restraint Aegis had not to whoop in excitement. That would probably have looked a little pathetic. Instead, he said, “I’m glad to hear that. And for the record, I like you too.”
Draco dipped their head in thanks.
After a moment, Aegis had an idea. “Hey, I don’t suppose you can write, can you? That would make things easier.”
They shook their head.
Aegis sighed in disappointment. “That’s okay. Neither can I.”
Draco cocked their head to one side curiously, as if to ask what he meant.
“Well, I could, but written language has changed a fair amount over the last few centuries,” he explained. “Everything is spelled differently now. Even the script has changed. It was fairly easy to relearn how to read, but writing…” He heaved a heavy sigh. “It’s absurd! Why did they have to change spelling, of all things?! It’s bad enough that there’s all this new technology that I don’t know how to use—Wait, where are you going?”
Draco had scampered off, but in a moment they were back with a dirk (a remnant of Dragon’s roguish, pre-SoulWeaving days). Before Aegis could ask what they were doing, they’d raised themself up on their hind legs, leaning against the dagger like a cane and making croaky noises, like a crotchety old man shooing children off his lawn.
“Hey!” Aegis said defensively, but it was difficult to feign offense when he was stifling laughter. “I’m not—I don’t—”
He was cut off by his own traitorous giggle, and once those floodgates were open, they refused to close. He probably laughed for a whole minute before he was cut off.
“Wow, I didn’t know ‘Dessert Domain’ was that funny,” came an amused voice from across the room. He looked up and saw Dragon standing in the doorway with two sacks of groceries. Hopefully vegetables. “I’m glad to see you’re having fun, though? I guess? Oh, did you clean out that cupboard while I was gone?”
Draco answered before Aegis could, and their response made Dragon look sheepish. “I never said he was a pushover!” A bark from Draco. “Yes, I know he isn’t. You don’t need to get all defensive of him. Aegis, tell them it’s okay.”
“It’ll be okay once you clean the mold out of your cupboard,” Aegis said, crossing his arms sternly but sending Draco a smile.
Dragon groaned. “ Okay ,” she said. Aegis followed her into the kitchen and peered into her sack of groceries as she placed it down.
“Dragon.”
“What?”
“Did you seriously not buy a single vegetable?”
“I—“
“You are going to go back to the market right now and buy some,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“But—”
“Dragon.”
She sighed. “Alright,” she said grumpily, walking out with her head hung in shame. “I’ll be back.”
As she left, Draco flew onto the counter and knocked over the same glass from before.
“I know, right?” Aegis snickered. “She’s such a pushover.”