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“Oh. I think I’ve heard of those. You can pay admission to go in and view them,” Ray said. “The dragon fetishizers go nuts over them.”

“So our home is being swallowed by darkness after all,” Shelly said.

“Not if I play my cards right,” Milo said. “I’m a dragon, right?”

“Yes,” Ray said.

“And dragons have hoards.”

“Boy, you barely have underwear without holes in it,” Ethel said. “What would you possibly have to display there?”

“You,” Milo said with a giant grin.

“Come again?” Ray asked.

“You. According to a very unwilling source of information, there are no rules as to what a dragon’s hoard can be as long as it’s of value to him, enriches his life in a meaningful way, and he has forged a bond with it that warrants protection and care. You… You’re my family, yes. But if we say you’re also my hoard, which you are, in a way, Rowan has agreed to carve out a space for you in the new building.”

“We’d be on display for people to come look at us?” Clarence asked.

“We’d be in porn?” Shelly asked.

“Oh for fuck’s…” Milo slammed a hand onto his plate, the abandoned drumstick bouncing out of it and rolling across the table. “You wouldn’t be in porn. And nobody would be coming to look at you. We can frame it as it being a private collection unavailable to the public, You’d just have your own space you could live in.”

“Would that work?” Ethel asked, clearly trying to find the catch.

“In theory, yes. But it will depend on how well I do.”

“What do you mean?” Ray asked.

“I have to become a dragon,” Milo said. “I have to be accepted by dragon society and registered as one officially. And to do that, I have to learn the customs and the behaviors and all of that so I can prove it, because all my records distinctly say human on them.”

“And you’re supposed to do that…how?” Ray asked.

“Rowan said he’ll help,” Milo said.

“He said that?” Ethel asked.

“Of his own free will?” Clarence added.

“Well, I might have forced his hand a bit, but he said yes.”

“It’s coercion,” Ray said.

“Still counts.” Milo shrugged. “Do you guys want a home or not? Because we won’t be getting rich any time soon and this is the only plan I have that doesn’t involve squatting.”

“Dragons still have to pay for those spaces, Milo,” Ray said.

“I know. I’ll take out loans. Get more jobs. I’ll do whatever I have to, but we are gonna keep our home. I promise you that.”

Milo watched them exchange looks—worried, hopeful, scared. He let them sit with the information for a little bit, take it in, realize what it all meant. The tiny speck of anxiety over how they saw him now that they knew reared its ugly head. Because this wasn’t just about knowing he was a dragon anymore. This was about going along with the plan and agreeing to present their relationship as something they might not be comfortable with.

“I…I know this is a lot,” he said softly. “I know how you feel about dragons. I know you swallowed those opinions for me. And now I’m springing this on you, calling you my hoard, offering solutions that might not pan out. I get all of that. I wish I had something more stable and sure to give you, but…I don’t. You might hate it, but me being a dragon is our only hope.”

He looked up at them and found most of them staring.

“Oh, Milo.” Ethel stood up and squeezed between chairs to get to him and pull him into a hug.

“We don’t hate you,” Shelly said. “None of us could ever hate you.”