Chapter Text
Between singing childhood songs, reading, and idle chatter, Toya had grown so used to Akito’s presence that it was no longer so appalling how his friend was a dragon a hundred times bigger than him. Perhaps he was right, that Akito was around his age in dragon years.
Tonight was the second night of Akito’s absence. Upon questioning, Akito claims that his flights happen on a whim. Toya doesn’t count enough to check, but he knows that though their frequency has increased, Akito never leaves him for more than two nights. During which, Toya had sadly depleted the unread books in the tower bookshelf and was now sorting through the books he brought with him on the journey, deliberating how to combine the two collections.
The room was dusted (save for the piano), books were organized into neat piles to be sorted into neater piles come morning, and spare fabrics were folded and tucked neatly away. A lone storybook sat on the nightstand, picked out to be read to Akito once he returned. Toya was clueless and Akito would never admit it, but the pastime began when he wanted to hear more of his voice. Hopefully it would quell the dragon’s agitation of the recent weeks. Now, Toya nestled into his bed. It would only be a peaceful sleep before the ground would give a familiar shake, signifying the dragon’s return.
Only a peaceful sleep before the ground…
The ground?
Only a peaceful-- before the-- where did the ground go-- ?
Pulled out of his slumber, Toya came to his senses. He was certainly no longer in his bed. Instead he felt--
“LET ME GO!” Toya writhed to pry himself free of the hands that wrapped around him in a bridal carry.
The captor did not budge or flinch or (please) lower him. “Hush, princess, I am trying to free you,” the knight, face obscured by iron, whisper-scolded, “we mustn’t alert the dragon, it could come back any minute now.”
They rapidly descended a spiral staircase that Toya only vaguely recognized. Only at the bottom was Toya able to pry himself loose and fall onto crumbling brick and stone. But the knight gave him no reprieve. He pulled him by the wrist off the ground and yanked him across the rubble of the castle. The knight essentially dragged him across pillars and down stairs, huddling close to cover. Swift footsteps (and another set of scrambling ones) echoed across the empty compound. Thank gods he wore pants that night, Miku knows how much more bruised his legs could get.
Toya was scared. Who was this man? Why so soon? What would anyone even want with him? The anxiety and exhaustion of the sprint coalesced into a knot inside his throat.
They rapidly approached the edge of the lower bailey, a collapsed entrance still a gateway through the fortifications. From high ground, Toya saw nothing but baron wasteland stretching from the edge of the ruined castle. The scene was dull, save for the glint of a charm being captured in the moonlight. He was leaving. He was being taken. The man was taking him to--
“STOP!” Toya choked through the pain and the phlegm in his throat, pulling his arm back. It was an ugly sound, his voice made, if it even sounded like him. He wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready to go back, especially for a random night that basically tried to kidnap him. “Please...”
Luckily, the knight obliged and freed him. Maybe that really was how he sounds, because the look the knight gave when he turned back made him feel ugly. Toya tenderly held his wrist. Through the chaos of the scene, he spotted the night give way to an orange line rising from the horizon.
“Apologies for skipping the pleasantries, princess,” the Knight said with frustration, “but we need to keep moving or else the dragon will arrive. Do you want to leave or not?” He outstretched his palm, trying to put on a kind look. A shadow darted, momentarily blocking the glow of sunlight in the horizon, framed not by a tower window but instead a crumbling wall.
“No,” Toya whispered, stepping back with shaking legs, “you should just go.”
A beat,
And fury rose in what Toya could see of the knight’s eyes. “I’m not going back empty han--”
His shout was cut off as a tail flew by and slammed him into a wall. Akito looped back around and landed with a leg between Toya and the intruder, his descent giving the ground a familiar shake, signifying the dragon’s return. The ashy black scales of Akito’s underside gained a molted orange glow, and Toya felt heat prick at his skin. Then the knight, given no reprieve from the crushing impact into the wall, was blasted in a beam of blinding white light. When Toya looked back after shielding his eyes from the flash, all that survived was a blackened suit of armour spotlighted in pitch black char. A sword clattered to the ground and Toya heard a grumble of satisfaction.
The past several minutes came rushing back to Toya. His body shivered in discomfort remembering how he was handled, how he was pulled to exhaustion and injury, how the charm around the knight’s cape swung as they ran: a golden rose, the symbol of the Aoyagi family. Suddenly, as if all the strength abandoned his already frail body, Toya’s knees buckled. His vision faded and he felt the ground fall out from beneath him. The shadow that Akito cast over him disappeared. In one moment he could see the morning sky, and in the next, nothing at all.