Dragon Knights Fan Fiction ❯ Birthday Fluff ❯ Birthday Fluff ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

There were different rules at sea. If he'd spent the past month on a boat certain things would have been expected and Thatz wondered why they were unspeakable on land. Even though they weren't bounded by the ocean, he'd spent the past few months in the company of the same two people, eating, sleeping, even peeing together. There was no opportunity to talk to the fairer sex, so why didn't it fall under the sailor's rule?

When he was young, his mother warned him never to go to sea. She said that sailing wasn't a good life for anyone, although Uncle Jonas seemed happy - he worked on a huge ship, with three great masts filled with billowing sails. Thatz spent a lot of time on the docks, waiting for him to come home and learning to fish. On his eighth birthday Uncle Jonas gave him a wooden boat and joked that when he'd learned to sail it, Thatz could be a cabin boy on his ship. His mother had argued with Uncle Jonas that night. The noise woke Thatz although he couldn't make out any words from his room. He did think that someone cried. Uncle Jonas left on a different ship within days and Thatz never saw him again. His mother saved every penny she could from that point on and when she had enough money, she took him away inland. He thought of returning when she died, but never got the courage to break his promise.

He can still smell the salty sea air. In his dreams the seagulls call to him.

o~O~o

Rath wondered why certain things that were acceptable when you were small became unacceptable when you grew up. Why did a deep voice and body hair mean that he couldn't give affection the same way he used to? Hugs and kisses were comforting. When he was little and cute he got more than he wanted. Over the years the attention died off and he missed it.

He wished that he could show the way he felt in the same, simple manner that he used to. Rath liked kisses. He liked to kiss those he loved, but only Kai-Stern accepted them. Kai-Stern wasn't near.

Rath loved Thatz and Rune.

o~O~o

Rune wondered if he'd gotten married too young. Although he thought their love would last forever, for most of their marriage his wife had been in a coma. When she fell asleep, he discarded the life he'd led with her and saw a new one outside the forest, away from other elves. While she slept, his world, a very different one, continued. He loved Tintlet, but he loved travelling with his new friends and seeing Dusis. It was dangerous and terrifying, but also exhilarating and fun. Rath and Thatz were very different people to those he knew when he was growing up. He wouldn't give them up.

He'd been so sheltered in the forest; and since he joined the Dragon knights such a lot had happened to him that he'd lived twice or three times as much as he had with her - real life-defining experiences that she'd missed.

He sometimes wondered if she'd recognise the new Rune, when she woke up and he sometimes wondered if he'd enjoy her company as much as he used to, or if he'd find her childish and shallow.

Tintlet had meant the world to him, but at the time his world had been so small.