Roman
“Oak?”
“Mm?”
“Are you asleep?”
“Nope.”
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
They chuckled. “I’m awake, dork.”
“Are you up for one more thing?”
“Mm. Depends on what it is.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. They sounded so sleepy and felt so warm and wonderful in my arms that I almost didn’t say anything. But… I really wanted to share something with them while we were out this way. “We’d have to leave here…”
“Why does it sound like that wasn’t a whole sentence?”
I snorted. How could they read me so well already, and when they were half asleep? “I want to show you something, take you somewhere, but we’d have to, uh, fly there.”
Their head popped up to look at me, almost headbutting me. “Really? You wanna fly with me?”
I nodded and rubbed their back. “Yes. My dragon is dying to come out and… you know.”
They looked amused. “Play with my dragon?”
I grimaced. “Well… yes.”
“We just flew together the other day.”
I sent a glare their way. “Yes, but that was before you, before we talked. Before you knew about being viramores. Plus, we had passengers, so we couldn’t do anything too wild.”
They let out a small laugh. “I’m messing with you. Yes, I wanna fly with you. Can we take off from here?” They glanced around. “There’s enough room.”
“Yeah. We’re pretty close to the place I want to show you anyway.” Not that flying any distance would be difficult for either of us, but Oak was clearly tired, so I didn’t want to make them fly too far away.
“Cool.” They hopped off the car’s hood, not seeming to care that half their blankets fell on the ground, and whipped their shirt over their head before I could blink. “Race ya!”
Then they ran farther away from the car into the clearing, took off their pants, and I only had about point-five seconds toadmire their ass before they were shifting into their beautiful golden dragon.
They were a gorgeous golden color that glinted in the moonlight, their shiny wings reflecting the light and making everything around them brighter. They had sharp horns, a much darker shade than their belly, spikes going down their spine, a big adorable snout, bright green eyes, and sharp talons that looked ready to strike. They also had this patch of scales on their hip that looked… different than the rest of their scales, less shiny, less vibrant, almost like a scar.
That was something I’d have to ask about one day, but not now, not when they were having so much fun, not when we were on our first official date.
They were fierce, there was no doubt about that, but when I looked at their face, all I could see was the sweet, gentle, and sassy person underneath.
They looked over their shoulder at me, and I let out a loud laugh as I jumped off the hood, stripped, ran a few steps, and launched myself up, shifting midair. My wings shot out quickly, catching me before I could hit the ground. Luckily, I was old enough that my shift was nearly instantaneous, so I could leap like that without fear.
I flapped my large wings to catch some altitude, and then I raced after my young mate. They might’ve had a head start, but I was determined to catch up to them.
I let out a churring noise when I was close, and Oakley laughed, a small rumbly noise in this form. I loved it.
I was nearly at their tail when they looked back at me, yipped, and then somehow put on more speed. Here I was thinking I was going to catch up, and they weren’t even going their top speed.
Okay, maybe I was bigger than them, but they were definitely faster.
