First Night In A Foreign Place

Flustered sounds akin to those of someone struggling with the aftermath of a meal that didn’t quite agree with them or even partaking in a little hand to gland combat but losing the battle, could be heard coming from the restroom of the shared dorm now belonging to a certain archduke and his bodyguard. The latter of which was responsible for the cacophony of stressed groans and growls and scuffling about which could be heard clearly throughout the room attached. The dragon in human form had gone into the restroom to shower off before heading to bed but the water had stopped running a good while ago and he has yet to leave the room. That wouldn’t be so alarming if it weren’t for what followed after the brief silence when the water had shut off. This went on for a little while longer until the sound of an uncharacteristicly high pitch yelp rang out above the rest of the noise and the door came flying open and with it, out tumbled the before mentioned dragon. With a hard thud he hit the ground, having tripped backward over his own tail after he accidentally triggered his collar to shock him which pushed him back into the door he had forgotten to close all the way.

After a moment of expressing his pain and frustration by way of cursing and continuing to struggle with the shirt that had gotten caught on one of his horns, he seemed to give up. He lay there for a moment, simply panting from the failed effort and blinking a bit of water out of his eyes that had dripped down his face from his hair, all with an annoyed scowl on his face. It didn’t take long for him to recoup from this little battle with his clothing as he gave something of a war cry and tried to pry the shirt from his horn. This didn’t go over any better than his other attempts as he had one arm tangled in the shirt and not to mention the twists in his horn made it even more difficult. His patience seemed to run out as he growled in frustration and tore the shirt off, completely ruining it instead of trying to preserve what was left of the shirt. He then proceeded to sit up and threw the mangled shirt at the far wall before crossing his arms over his chest and grumbling obscenities under his breath.

By the time Ahstonik registered the angry voice getting onto him for his annoying antics, the pillow had already hit its mark and wacked him in the back of the head. Already having been thoroughly irritated by his little scuffle with his shirt, the blow to the back of the head, however soft it was, only kick started his seething all other again. For a moment he just sat there silently, thin trails of smoke seeping from his nostrils before he turned around sharply to glare at his roommate. Those vibrant dragon eyes of his followed the young archduke as he crossed the room and took a seat next to him and only narrowed even more upon the mention of dragons being dumb.

“Who are you calling dumb?! You’re dumb!” He retorted childishly, now standing up and pointing an accusing finger at the brunette and waving his other arm about in a spastic manner to show his disapproval of the insult. Now on his feet, he marched over to his own bed, snatched one of his own pillows before making his way back over to the archduke on the floor. He stood before his roommate for a short moment, something of a mischievous look on his face as he pulled the pillow back at a diagonal and swung it like a bat in an attempt to smack the other in the face with it.

As ironic as it was being a body guard, Ahstonik was caught off guard once again by the young archduke. While he was busy stammering like an idiot from the last of Aloy’s insults and preparing to shoot back a fitting response, said brunette had other plans. The next thing he knew he was dinning on a to go meal of fancy pillow, stumbling backward and nearly tripped over his own tail as he had already done earlier that night. It seemed as though, however, the past would repeat itself as before he could even muster up an angry glare or annoyed growl, he found himself square on his back for the second time. This time however it wasn’t from his own clumsy doing as it seemed his little to go meal came with a prize of sorts as an extra weight landed on top of him. The dragon boy gave out an involuntary and breathless ‘oof’ as the wind was knocked out of him and then immediately following the impact of Aloy’s weight, a surprised grunt.

All of this was followed by a string of slurs as Ahstonik set his angry gaze on his roommate and struggled underneath his weight. With his strength it would have been a fairly easy thing to toss the brunette off but the look on his face gave the dragon boy pause. Lizard…? His struggling stopped all together, a dark expression crossed his face and a low growl started up in the pit of his chest. Lizard….lizard?! Much like earlier, smoke flowed in thin trails from his nostrils and as it always did when he was angry, his body temperature raised to where the heat could most likely be felt by the boy who had made a perch atop his exposed stomach.

As his young master continued talking, it seemed Ahstonik calmed a bit and kept his body temperature from rising to a burning height or setting himself ablaze and instead it cooled down. The dangerously look on his face was replaced by a composed smile and an overall much gentler and even sweet expression. It didn’t seem the ‘dragon soup’ comment got to him as he exhaled the last of the smoke built up from his anger and held on to this almost creepily tranquil expression, eyes never leaving the brunette.

“You do realize I’m practically naked and you’re sitting dangerously close to my crotch, don’t you?” He deadpanned instead of coming up with some type of retort and kept on staring up at the brunette with that look on his face.

“I bet you do…and I bet you’re enjoying this too.” He added after a moment. “You know your infatuation with me is getting a little out of hand.” He chided in a sing-songy tone and continued on in that. “Oh but it was only a matter of time before you jumped me and tried to take advantage of my irresistibly sexy body.” He finished, lips curling into a smug smirk as he awaited a reaction.

Success! Ahstonik knew the moment that look on the young archduke’s face did a complete one eighty from haughty to a look of realization and then to utter embarrassment, that he had won this round. The smug smirk on his own face only increased in size as did his ego when his plan played out in front of him perfectly and he had gone from being demeaned and quite literally being looked down upon to being victorious. Oh yes, as childish and meaningless as that entire scuffle was, Ahstonik still took pride in being able to bring the king-to-be down from his throne and to raise himself above the ranks of ‘body guard’. Not that it changed anything as in truth, Aloysius would always have the upper hand and be top dog when it came to them, and Ahstonik by default would never be anything more than his protector by force.

Ahstonik lay there, making no move of shoving the other off him and simply, reveled silently in his victory, chuckling internally and enjoying the sight of Aloysius squirming under his words. His smirk fell just the slightest bit and so did his ego over the situation as he was caught onto and Aloys realized what he was doing. His eyes narrowed down a bit upon being called a ‘big dumb meanie’ and the jig was up. Well, it was fun while it lasted….actually, even though he was called out for what he was doing, this was still amusing to the dragon. That is, until the next of what Aloys said reached his ears.

‘I could have gotten a Griffin, a Pegasus or even a phoenix…At least those aren’t all jerks’. Ok, that stung a little. Ahsonik wasn’t entirely sure why but even as pouty and most likely not serious as those words were, they hit him harder than one would expect. The jerk part of the insult wasn’t what caused his expression to fall and all amusement to leave the dragon’s demeanor but the other half of it. The half that said ‘you’re the equivalent of a pet; an insignificant and replaceable one’ and the half that made his heart sink just a little bit. Something of a hurt expression crossed his face and he finally stood up. Without saying a word, he uncharacteristically let the interaction drop instead of continuing to agitate the archduke further; he found his way to his own bed. Giving up the notion of trying to re-dress himself, he simply crawled into bed and pulled the covers up as he turned his back on Aloys.

Normally Ahstonik would be quick to snap back a snarky response or find a way to continually tease the archduke, but tonight was different. He wasn’t sure how or why but coming to this island has put him a bit on edge. Perhaps it was because he has never really been anywhere other than the castle he grew up in (well he’s gone outside the castle several times to accompany Aloys when he did but other than that, the castle was all he knew), and was strangely feeling a little homesick. Nah, that wouldn’t be right, would it? He was after all, glad to be able to see more of the world and not have to be in the constant watch of Aloy’s parents and their servants. Whatever, it didn’t matter anyway; he was a great dragon and as a great dragon he would not let himself be dragged down by a measly insult…especially not one from that brat of an archduke! With that, he gave one last narrowed glare at his roommate before turning his back to him once more and shutting his eyes.

At first, Ahstonik didn’t move upon feeling the extra weight on the end of his bed and he could have been mistaken for being asleep. Especially with how deep of a sleeper he was as it would have taken much more than sitting on the bed, talking and even poking at him to wake him up. He wasn’t asleep however and from under the covers he had pulled partly over his head, he raised an eyebrow at the apology. That certainly wasn’t expected. He shifted, giving a sign that he was indeed awake and listening but didn’t say anything to any of what the archduke was saying. That is, until the next of what he mentioned. His instantly sat up, throwing the covers off his head and set his eyes on Aloys. It wasn’t with an angry expression that he stared at the other, but with an eager one. It seemed his mood had done a complete one eighty and none of what had bothered him before mattered in the least anymore.

“TREASUE?!” He shouted, leaning a bit closer to the archduke, eyes alight with excitement. “Where?!” He pressed “Tell me where!” He pressed, grabbing onto Aloy’s shirt but giving no time for an answer before trying to get out of the bed only to trip up over the blankets and fall face first to the floor.

“Ow.” He groaned, picking himself up off the floor and rubbing at his face. It didn’t seem to faze him for long though, as he put his attention back on his roommate. “Treasure Aloys! We have to go!” He insisted, wasting no time in heading for the door, forgetting the fact that he was wearing no clothing other than boxers.