Dragon Love

by Spazzcat-Katori

Shiro never expected to be assigned to guard the crown prince on his annual inspection tour of the kingdom. And he definitely did not expect the prince to drag him up into the mountains, territory of the feared and deadly dragons. But as it turns out, Prince Matthew has a lot to teach him about dragons-and about his own heart.

"Food, water, blankets..."

"Lounge chairs."

"Rain tents, bow and arrows, skinning knife..."

"Ball gowns."

"Notebooks, ink, quills..."

"Curtains."

Shiro gave the Prince an icy look over the back of the horse. "Do you mind?"

Prince Matthew gave him a cheeky grin in return, his own horse prancing impatiently under him. "What? I'm helping."

"You are not, your highness. You are distracting me from making sure we are properly equipped and you know it." Shiro turned his gaze firmly back to the packs strapped behind the saddle, resuming his checklist under his breath.

The prince made a rude noise. "You are no fun. Please tell me you're not going to be like this the entire trip. I mean, you must have a sense of humor in there somewhere, right? Even Captain Olia does."

Shiro declined to comment in response to that, instead making one last check of the horse's harness before swinging up into the saddle. Surveying their little party, he nodded for the groomsmen to step back and dug his heels into his mount's sides and swung out into the passage leading to the castle's outer gate. He couldn't help a small smirk at the offended exclamation behind him at his abrupt departure and the clatter of hooves as the Prince kneed his mount to catch up. Sense of humor indeed.

If you had told Takashi Shirogane two weeks earlier that he, a young squad leader in the palace guard who had never been closer to the royal family than his usual post at the front gate, would be called for an audience with the King and Queen, where he would be informed that he was being assigned to accompany the Crown Prince on his annual inspection tour of the kingdom in place of Captain Olia due to her recent injury in a skirmish with bandits, he would have told you that you were crazy. And if you told him that Prince Matthew would turn out to be one of the most obnoxiously mischievous, playful, energetic people he had ever had the misfortune of meeting, he would have had you arrested for grand insult to a royal.

As it was, two weeks later and two hours out from the castle, Shiro was already regretting his decision to accept the posting, and wondering if it was too late to turn back. No amount of extra pay to feed himself and his brother was worth this.

Prince Matthew was bouncing slightly in his saddle, although the horse didn't even bat an eye, apparently used to his antics, as he talked non-stop and reviewed a small notebook clutched in one hand. "So after we work our way along the northern border to Alsith, we zigzag back and forth across the kingdom working our way south. A day or so per town should be sufficient, with a couple days for the larger ones so I can speak to a representative of all the major industries, and we have to keep count of-"

"Your highness." Shiro interrupted wearily. "I've already been informed by the King and Queen of the scheduled route and expected timing of the entire trip."

The prince paused, silent for the first time since they'd left as he glanced over his shoulder at Shiro. There was an odd expression on his face that the guard couldn't quite read. "The entire trip?" He asked, something in his tone reflecting the odd look on his face.

"Yes, your highness. The entire trip." Shiro sighed, stroking his horse's shoulder in silent commiseration for what he'd gotten them both stuck with.

"And you don't have a problem with any of it?" Prince Matthew pressed, strangely intense.

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Should I?" Had something been left out that he was supposed to know about? The briefing had been somewhat rushed, since Captain Olia's injury had left them without a suitable guard for the Prince's trip, so it was entirely possible.

Another brief pause, broken by a sudden huff. "No. I'm glad to hear you feel that way, though." The prince kneed his horse into a trot. "Come on. We need to get moving if we're going to reach the first town by sundown." Another nudge spurred his mount into a canter and left Shiro staring at his dust trail in confusion, the bizarre exchange leaving him with unexpected questions about the young Prince's sudden shift in mood.

He had no opportunity to get answers to those questions during the remainder of the ride, The prince busying himself with his notes whenever their pace slowed. The sun was just setting as the horses' hooves hit the hard packed dirt of the main thoroughfare of the tiny town of Mairth. Finding a place to stay the night was simple enough-a single inn and tavern squatted between the blacksmith and the tailor. A sign over the door proclaimed the establishment's name as the Dragon's Skull, and Shiro caught Matthew's scowl at it as they made their way inside.

The reason for the name was obvious. A dragon's skull, easily three feet long, swung from ropes attached to the ceiling joists to dangle above the counter. Shiro caught the prince's lip curling in suppressed disgust as he hung back well short of the area. Not that Shiro could blame him. The place was filthy from top to bottom, stains on every table and dirt in the cracks of the floor. No wonder the prince hadn't been happy about coming in here. Not as if they had a choice, though.

"Two rooms, please." Shiro said conversationally to the bartender, handing over the requested fee and receiving a pair of rusty keys in return. He jumped as one of the keys was suddenly swiped out of his hand.

"I'm going to bed." Prince Matthew informed him in a low voice. "You can have a drink if you want, but don't forget we have another long day tomorrow." Before Shiro could even formulate a reply he was gone, striding up the stairs towards the inn rooms on the upper floor.

Shiro stared after him for a moment in confusion. He'd heard plenty of things about the Crown Prince before but these...mood swings were not one of them. Was he going to be like this the entire journey? If so, then maybe he better take him up on the drink suggestion.

Two beers later, he found his mood much improved. The tavern was quiet, the patrons well-behaved, and with nothing better to do he studied the hanging skull from his spot at the counter.

"Beauty, isn't she?" The barkeep commented with obvious pride, noting Shiro's inspection. "My father's the one that took her down, put a stop to her terrorizing the local farms. Half dozen arrows, right through the eye." He mimed shooting a longbow, squinting down an invisible shaft.

Shiro made a suitably impressed noise. Dragons were fast flyers, from what he'd been told, and it would have taken considerable skill to get them in the eye even if it was one of their most vulnerable spots. "I didn't realize they flew this far north."

The barkeep snorted, swiping at the counter with a dirty rag. "Nah. This was back when we lived down south. Before the king ordered everywhere south of Terrazine abandoned because of the foul beasts. We carted it up here along with everything else."

Shiro winced and nodded in sympathy. The decree issued some twenty-odd years ago had displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes and livelihoods in an effort to put a stop to the depredations of the dragons who lived in the southern mountains, constantly killing people and stealing livestock and setting buildings ablaze. Although the royal family had spent a fortune financing the exodus, and there had been no reported dragon attacks in recent years, at least as far as Shiro had heard, there were many people who still resented being forced to move and losing their lands to the dangerous, greedy creatures.

"Anyway, it's one less of the damn things out raiding and murdering. Good riddance, I say." The barkeep glanced at the timepiece in the corner. "'scuse me. Work to do."

The next morning Shiro was relieved to find Matthew's volatile mood apparently somewhat improved. His smile was warm and cheerful as he greeted the guardsman over breakfast. "Eat up. The town council's already waiting for us. They're efficient, and we can probably be out of here and heading towards Trom as soon as we're done lunch."

"Eager to be out of here?" Shiro asked, raising an eyebrow as he pulled up a chair and speared some sausages and potatoes from the tray in the middle of the table.

Matthew nodded, unabashed. "The sooner we finish each town, the more time that leaves for later. You never know what might pop up to give us trouble."

"True enough." Shiro hummed around a forkful of potato. "There's always plenty that can go wrong when you're travelling. Storms, bandits, escaped bulls..."

There was a slight pause, the prince raising an eyebrow at him. "Escaped bulls? That sounds like it has a story behind it."

Shiro's cheeks heated in mild embarrassment. "I'm sure you can guess the details for yourself. I was just a teenager at the time, running supplies from one town to the next, in my defense."

The prince let out a delighted laugh. "And how much time did it add to your trip?"

"...Two days."

The laughter turned into a howl of mirth that attracted every eye in the tavern. Shiro scowled impartially around at all of the nosy bystanders. It really was not that funny, there was no reason for the prince to be pounding on the table and going red in the face.

To Shiro's chagrin Matthew was still chortling merrily by the time they went to meet with the town council. But as promised the local officials were superbly efficient, presenting him with detailed reports on local production, trade, infrastructure, and hunting. Matthew's pencil flew through the notebook as they discussed the contents, making rapid notations in a cramped shorthand that Shiro devoutly hoped the prince could read his own writing because, glancing over the other man's shoulder, he certainly couldn't. Finally the meeting concluded with a thick sheaf of papers being pressed into Matthew's hands, Matthew assuring the council that the citizen's concerns would be reviewed and attended to, and then they were off towards the next town.

This set the pattern for the journey. Travel, sleep, meet with townsfolk, lather, rinse, repeat. The prince obviously had the inspection tour down to a fine art, as for every delay in one town they made up the difference in another, more efficient location. Even if, as far as Shiro was concerned, some of the delays were avoidable.

"Your highness, why did you let her go on for three hours?" Shiro asked as Ossetia disappeared into the heat haze behind them. "We'll be lucky to make Zinth by moonrise now. You're the crown prince, I hardly think you need to know if foxes gnawed into her chicken coop."

"Because it's actually very important information." Matthew responded distractedly, concentrating on writing despite his horse's rocking trot.

"Foxes in a chicken coop is important?"

"Yes." Matthew glanced up at him with a huff. "Look, foxes are wild animals, and they generally prefer to stay away from humans, right? So if they're coming into the farms and taking chickens, especially when it requires so much effort, then that means they're having trouble getting enough food out in the forests. I'm not seeing anything in these reports that indicates the rabbits are being over hunted-if anything, they caught 13% fewer than last year-so something else must be reducing the rabbit population in the area. Either an illness, or an excess of predators. I'm going to have to curtail the hunting of rabbits in the area for a bit until the population bounces back and balance can be restored."

Shiro felt his jaw drop. "And you got all of that from a rambling story about a chicken coop?"

Matthew's frown changed to a grin. "Sure did. What am I a prince for, if not to spot potential problems that affect my kingdom?"

All Shiro could do was shake his head in wonder as Matthew spurred his horse into a gallop. The longer he spent with the prince, the less he knew what to make of him.

0000000

Taver's Lake was a large town, one of the trading hubs of the kingdom, and it showed. The main market square was so packed with people that they'd been forced to dismount and lead the horses in order to make any forward progress through the crowd. The prince forged ahead easily, handing out 'pardon me's and 'excuse me's left and right. Behind him, Shiro's gaze darted left and right, constantly surveying the crowd. In a place like this, it would be all too easy for an assassin to get close and put a knife in the prince's ribs before anyone even realized what was happening.

Something moved between taller figures and Shiro's eyes narrowed as a child brushed past the prince. To the casual observer, it looked as though the prince's bag had only been bumped, but the guardsman knew better. He surged forward and grabbed the child by the arm before she could disappear into the crowds. "Put it back." He told her, gentle but firm.

The girl's eyes widened and she yelped and struggled, trying to get away. Shiro could see the prince had stopped and turned back to see what was going on, and feel other eyes on them, but he disregarded them for the moment. He crouched, putting himself more on the child's level. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said, keeping his tone soft as he took in her ragged clothes and too-thin limbs. "Just put back what you took and tell me what you need."

Eyeing him warily, the child slowly quieted, and reluctantly held up a hand clutching a brass spyglass. "Food." She muttered, confirming Shiro's suspicions as to the reason for the theft. Hopefully her cooperation would spare her a harsher punishment for the attempted theft from the prince who was now standing beside Shiro, one hand still guiding his horse.

Before Shiro could reach for his own pack, though, to his surprise the prince started digging in his satchel and came up with a small coin pouch that he held out to the girl without hesitation. "Here you go." He offered, giving her his usual lopsided grin. "This should keep you supplied for a while."

Wide-eyed, the girl hesitated as she looked Matthew up and down, before snatching the coin pouch and glancing inside. Then, before either of them could blink, the spyglass had been shoved into the prince's chest and the child had vanished into the crowd, having snaked free of Shiro's grip in his moment of distraction.

Sighing, Shiro straightened and grabbed the reins of his horse, who had been standing patiently during the altercation. "Sorry about that, your highness. Thank you for not punishing her."

The prince gave him in an odd look as he tucked the spyglass back into his bag. "Punish her? Why would I punish her for being hungry?"

Blinking, Shiro opened his mouth and then closed it again. Prince Matthew couldn't possibly be unaware of the way most people would have reacted to having their possessions pick-pocketed. Not when he apparently carried extra coin pouches to give away to those in need.

Before he could come up with a satisfactory answer, the prince was giving him a small smile that made his heart flutter oddly. "Actually, I should be thanking you for being so gentle with her. Not many people would."

"She's just a kid." Shiro answered, pointing out the obvious. Why did his cheeks feel so warm? "She needs help, not yelling."

The prince nodded, his smile widening as he looked Shiro over with a slight tilt to his head and an oddly contemplative expression on his face. Then he turned away, stroking the nose of his horse to calm it as it stomped anxiously at the rattle of a loaded cart. "Come on, let's get moving. We have an appointment with the mayor, and I'm going to need some extra time to review the child welfare system here."

All Shiro could do was shake his head in wonder as the prince turned back into the crowd. Who knew that such a caring heart was hiding under that often-mischievous grin?

0000000

"And the guard looks up, and he just screams because Pidge is hanging six inches over his head with a broken-off pike head almost as long as she was!" Matt waved his hands vigorously as he described one of the Princess's adventurous exploits.

Shiro was doubled over in his saddle, almost crying from how hard he was laughing. He wiped hopelessly at his eyes with one hand. "Oh my gods...that's terrible! And what happened then?"

"He resigned on the spot. Couldn't get out of the castle fast enough." Matthew replied with a delighted grin. "That's what you get for being a sexist jerk to my sister, though."

"Serves him right." Shiro nodded sagely, finally managing to catch his breath. He spurred his horse into the lead as they headed up a low rise, partly to scout the way and partly because the Prince's smile was completely unfair in the way it made Shiro's poor gay heart flutter. He may prefer men but he had no business being this attracted to royalty. It would only end in trouble.

All thoughts of Matthew's smile went out of his head as he cleared the crest of the hill.

Below the ridge, a town spread out across the flats near the bank of a river. Or at least, it had been a town once. Now it was little more than a collection of charred timber and broken stone, with years-worth of wild growth twining this way and that around the collapsed piles of debris that had once been homes and shops, stables and taverns. Only the main road through the town remained clear, a jarring contrast to the ruins on either side.

"Shirogane? What's-oh." The prince had come up behind him while he sat frozen, staring at the destruction below. "Right. I forgot that was coming up."

Shiro had to shake his head to gather his wits, kneeing his horse to catch back up to the Prince, whose mount was picking its way along the switchback on this side of the ridge. "What happened here?" He asked softly, unable to keep his eyes off the burnt houses.

"Dragons." Matthew said, his tone flat. "Get used to it. You'll see more of this as we move further south."

They made their way down the ridge in silence. The road led through the center of the burned-out town, and Shiro couldn't help tracing out the piles of collapsed, charred timber, barely recognizable as once having been buildings.

He wondered what had happened to the inhabitants. The survivors would have moved to other towns, but had there even been any, with the town so destroyed?

Swallowing hard, Shiro set his jaw and felt for the pommel of his sword, glancing at the prince he'd been charged with protecting. There may not have been any dragon attacks in a long time, but he would keep an eye on the skies anyway.

0000000

"Your highness?" Shiro called quietly, peering around the edge of the door, then sighed as he saw a tousled head of orange hair slumped over the desk surrounded by papers and guttering candles.

The prince had been working himself far too hard, Shiro thought as he crossed the room quietly to rescue sheaves of hand-written notes from the candle wax that threatened to overflow the base of the holders. They'd been in this town for three days, because Matt had apparently decided that as a royal, it was his duty to personally oversee the organizing of an effective defense against the bandits that had been plaguing the area until the soldiers he'd sent for could arrive. He was doing a good job of it, Shiro had to admit, knowing the area intimately enough from his discussions with the locals and having a good head for strategy, but he'd barely been taking time to sleep in the process and Shiro was getting worried for his health.

Looking around, Shiro located the bed in the corner of the room that had been made available for the prince's use, and sighed again when he saw it was still made from their arrival. He tugged the quilt off and dragged it over to drape over Matt's shoulders.

"You can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself first, silly." Shiro muttered softly, making sure the blanket wouldn't slip and unable to help the fond expression on his face as he looked at the slumbering prince, slack-jawed on the table and likely to wake up with ink stains on his cheek. Honestly, the man's heart was too big for his own good. He shook his head, trying to get his affection under control, and blew out the candles, heading for the door.

In the darkness, his back turned, he never saw an amber eye watch him go from between dark lashes, or the blush that dusted freckled cheeks.

0000000

"Ready to go, your highness?" Shiro grinned, throwing his bags over his horse's back and securing them to the saddle.

"You really have to ask?" The prince was already mounted, his horse dancing under him in response to its rider's impatience. "Hurry up already!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Shiro laughed and swung up into the saddle. Before he could even dig in his heels the prince was off, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust as he galloped down the road and out of town.

Not that Shiro could blame him. He spurred his own horse into a gallop and chased after the prince, every bit as eager to be on their way. This had been the very last town, near the western border, and once they made it out of the low valley where the town sat walled by steep ridges to either side, all they had to do was head for the north and home.

He had to admit it to himself, the last month had been far more enjoyable than he'd expected. In addition to his diligence and devotion to the well-being of his kingdom and the people in it, the prince had displayed a wicked sense of humor, a selflessness that Shiro never would have expected in a royal, and a cheerful personality that made him fun to be around. Shiro had rarely seen him look unhappy, and that was usually when they'd passed through the burned ruins of some town destroyed by dragons in years past. Shiro was almost sorry that the trip was nearly over.

Almost. He wasn't sure how much more his heart could take of that smile.

Lost in thought about how unfairly attractive the prince was, and self-recriminations against himself for falling head-over-heels for the most unavailable person in the entire kingdom, he let the horse set its own pace up the steep slope at the end of the valley and nudged it automatically to the right to start the journey north back toward the royal palace. He'd managed to cover a fair distance before he realized he was alone on the road.

Tugging the reins to bring the horse to a stop, he looked around frantically for Prince Matthew. "Your highness?" He called. There was no answer, but to the south he could just make out a distant cloud of dust kicked up by a lone horse.

Cursing furiously, Shiro spun his horse and raced after the fleeing form. He'd gotten careless over the calm journey, and let his guard down just when he should have been most alert with both the border and the southern no-man's-land so close by. Bandits, assassins, mercenaries, the possibilities were endless. He prayed that this was merely a kidnapping and not a murder attempt. He refused to consider the possibility that he would find the young man face down in a pool of blood, no matter how the vision taunted the back of his mind.

He closed the gap steadily, spurring the horse as fast as it could go, until he could just make out the colour of the horse and rider. To his shock, he realized that there was neither assassin nor kidnapper. That was the prince, mounted, and cantering easily along the overgrown path.

Furious, he closed the gap until he could cut the other pair off, sending the prince's horse rearing as it was forced to a stop. The prince yelped, clinging to the saddle for purchase and backing his mount quickly. "Shirogane! What the hell are you doing?!" He demanded, stroking the horse's neck in an attempt to calm the snorting, prancing animal.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Shiro snapped back, hands white-knuckled on the reins. "You're going the wrong way! I nearly had a heart attack when I realized you weren't beside me! I thought you'd been kidnapped or attacked!"

"You-wrong way?!" Matt spluttered and his eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Shiro let out an exasperated noise. He knew perfectly well there was nothing wrong with the prince's sense of direction. "The palace is north of here. Not south."

The prince went oddly still. "And why," he asked, in a carefully measured and quiet tone, "would we be headed for the palace now?"

Shiro paused. He was getting the distinct sense that there was something he was missing here, something important. "Because we're done our tour of the kingdom." Or at least, he thought they were. They'd certainly covered everything talked about in his briefing on the assignment.

Apparently that was the wrong answer. The prince's expression went as dark as thunder and he kneed his horse forward, pushing past Shiro's mount and heading south once more. "I knew it. I knew you were too good to be true." He muttered as he passed, words that Shiro didn't think he'd been meant to hear. More loudly, he declared "no, we're not done." without so much as a backwards glance.

Shiro had no choice but to turn and follow. "Your highness?" He questioned. There were no more towns to the south, not in the years since the king had ordered the southern part of the kingdom abandoned to protect the people from the dragons. Where were they going?

"You told me you had received a complete briefing on this assignment, Shirogane, and that there was no part of it you objected to." The prince's tone was sharp and cold, punctuated by twigs cracking under his horse's hooves. "Was that a lie?"

"No, your highness." An uncomfortable feeling settled into Shiro's chest at the accusation, and at the prince's sudden anger towards him. "At least, not as far as I knew."

The prince hummed and nodded, conceding that point. "Alright. Well, the point of the tour is to assess the well-being and state of the kingdom. People, crops, lands, and animals. And the latter category includes the dragons." He glanced back over his shoulder, unmistakable challenge in the amber eyes.

Shiro froze in the saddle. Automatically, his eyes were drawn upwards toward the mountain peaks ahead of them, visible between the trees that lined the road. "Your highness, you can't be serious. You're not-they're dangerous! Monsters! You've seen for yourself the damage they do!"

The only response to his palpable alarm was a tired sigh and a despairing shake of the prince's head. "Look. I am going to those mountains. And I am going to check on the dragons. You can either come with me, and behave yourself, or you can head back to the palace alone. I know what I'm doing."

Going back was out of the question. There was no way he could leave the prince alone in a land filled with dangerous creatures. "I'm coming with you."

"Fine." Prince Matthew kneed his horse back up into a trot, then a canter. "Hurry up. We have a lot of ground to cover."

With the prince so irritable, it wasn't until they were bedding down for the night in the shelter of a copse of trees that Shiro dared speak again. "Your highness?" He asked cautiously, smoothing out his bedroll and making sure it wasn't too close to the fire.

"Yes?" The prince didn't so much as glance up from his notebook, scribbling furiously.

Shiro paused for a moment, considering his words carefully. The prince had been doing these tours for many years, and was familiar with the kingdom in a way that Shiro was not. From the sound of it, checking on the dragons was a normal part of the routine, no matter how dangerous the creatures were supposed to be. And yet the prince showed no trace of nervousness or hesitation towards the task. If anything, he almost seemed to be looking forward to it.

"...Why are you so certain this is safe?" Was the question he finally came out with. A tacit acknowledgement that clearly, the prince did not feel any need to fear the dragons, and a query as to why that was.

The phrasing must have met the prince's approval, because he snapped his notebook shut and sat up straighter, regarding Shiro steadily with the firelight reflecting in his eyes. "Because dragons aren't dangerous." He said simply.

That answer was definitely not what Shiro was expecting, and he blinked. How could they not be dangerous? There were countless stories of livestock stolen, villages razed, people killed. There was no one who didn't speak of dragons in awed and fearful tones, for the destruction they had wrought over the generations.

His non-comprehension must have showed in his face, because the prince sighed, tracing a fingertip idly through the dirt. "Let me rephrase. They're not dangerous, unless you provoke them."

"And you don't think us wandering up into the mountains is going to provoke them?" Shiro blurted, raising an eyebrow at the other.

Matthew burst out laughing, turning to shove his book into his satchel and climb into his bedroll. It was the first smile Shiro had seen from him since they'd started south, and something in his chest eased at the sight of it. "They know me. As long as you don't go poking them with your sword and give them a reason to feel threatened, we'll be fine, I promise."

That...probably shouldn't have been as reassuring as it was. But it was hard to argue with the prince's easy confidence, so all Shiro did was nod. For now, he'd follow the prince's lead. But he'd keep his sword close, just in case.

0000000

It took two more days of hard riding to cross the wide buffer of uninhabited land between the remaining inhabited towns and the foot of the mountains. On the third day, as they passed through thick old-growth forest, the trees towering high overhead and casting thick shadows on the sparse ground cover, Shiro noticed the prince looking around more than usual. His head swivelled constantly, eyes narrowed as he peered into the darkness around them.

Shiro was just about to ask why when both of them caught the distant crack of a branch snapping.

The prince's eyes narrowed further, but he said nothing and continued forward at the same steady pace. Shiro's hand went to the pommel of his sword, his muscles tensing as he scanned their surroundings.

It happened so suddenly that they were both taken completely by surprise. A massive shape burst from between two thick trunks, surging towards the prince in the blink of an eye. Shiro heard the prince's startled yelp, the horse's whinny of alarm, and smelled something like woodsmoke and ash.

On instinct, he kneed his mount forward, drawing his sword in a shriek of sliding steel. The creature roared, sending another blast of smoke-scent his way, circling around to face him, massive wings spreading until they nearly tangled in the trees-

"Don't! Don't! Shirogane, stop! Green, no!"

The prince's yell brought him up short, his hands clenching tight on the sword grip and the reins. Across from him, a dragon with sleek emerald scales and brown and copper ridges was curled around the prince and his horse, hissing at him, head down, hackles raised, wings spread and tail lashing. Matthew had both hands pressed to its chest as though he could hold it back, looking frantically between the two of them as they stared each other down.

Shiro swallowed. The thing was huge, its shoulders easily level with Matt's head despite its hunched posture and the horse adding to the prince's height. It snorted and smoke poured from the nostrils, leaving a foul taste at the back of Shiro's throat. But the creature had the prince cornered, trapped, and there was no mistaking the panic in the other man's eyes. "Don't worry!" He called. "I can handle this!"

"Don't you dare!" The prince shouted as he adjusted his grip on the sword. The growl the dragon was making deepened a note, golden eyes flashing as they tracked him. "Drop your sword!"

Drop his sword? Was the prince out of his mind? His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward in the saddle.

"Drop the damn sword, Shirogane, or so help me I will let her fry you!"

Let her? Shiro blinked. Looked again at the scene in front of him.

The prince's hands were still pressed to the dragons chest, and Shiro could now make out him murmuring, almost as if trying to calm the beast. For its part, the dragon was wrapped around horse and rider, Prince Matthew tucked against its side in an oddly protected location. And Shiro couldn't see so much as a scratch on either of them.

Their conversation three nights earlier came back to him. The prince believed this was safe, that the dragons wouldn't hurt him. So, no matter how crazy the order seemed, Shiro would just have to trust him.

Slowly, reluctantly, he dropped his sword, the weapon landing with a muffled thump in the dirt at his horse's feet.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the great wings folded back along the spiny ridge of the back, the mouth closed, and the head pulled back. Prince Matthew heaved a sigh of relief, and Shiro watched in stunned amazement as he reached up and stroked the huge scaly head once it was within reach, murmuring a quiet word of thanks.

"That's a dragon." He felt obliged to point out, cautiously kneeing his horse forward in a slow, careful approach, never taking his eyes off the massive creature, which almost seemed to be leaning into the prince's caress.

The prince hummed, a soft smile on his face as he reached up further to scratch the ridges over the eyes. "Yep. Her name is Green."

The easy familiarity with which he said it was almost jarring. "You...know...her?" Shiro asked slowly, still watching in disbelief.

"Of course. She has a cave on one of the lower ridges." Matthew slid out of the saddle and stepped up to the dragon's side, not showing the slightest concern for how she towered over him as he started running his hands over her sleek scales. "Arrived a few years back. Came out just as I was riding past and scared me and Olia half to death." He laughed at the memory. "Since then it's become a bit of a game between us for her to try to sneak up and scare us whenever we come to the mountains."

The mental image was so at odds with everything Shiro had ever been told about dragons that he couldn't quite take it in. Yet there was no arguing with the way Green, as Matthew called her, seemed perfectly content to let the prince run his hands over every part of her body. He even pulled out a seamstress's measuring tape from his bag and started taking measurements, scribbling them down in his notebook, and all she did was obligingly turn to give him better access to whatever he was examining. The prince was chattering to her in a fond voice as he worked, exclaiming in approval over her apparent growth since last year, and the entire time his lips were quirked in a smile of quiet happiness that Shiro had never seen before and that set his heart racing in his chest.

Then suddenly, it was over. The prince gave Green's head one last affectionate hug and vaulted back up into the saddle, a joyful grin on his face as he told the dragon to get going, they had work to do. The dragon huffed but crouched, gathering herself, then sprang into the air with a mighty stroke of her wings that blasted air and dust across the forest floor. Shiro couldn't take his eyes off Matthew's brilliant ones as he shaded them, head tilted back to watch Green disappear rapidly into the sky.

The prince must have felt Shiro's eyes on him because he turned suddenly, raising an eyebrow questioningly. Shiro startled, flushing, and quickly looked away, hopping out of the saddle to retrieve his sword and taking his time wiping the dirt away with his sleeve while he tried to get his racing heart under control. Matthew had looked so happy, and it was definitely not helping his massive crush to think about that smile.

When he felt he had his emotions at least somewhat under control, he sheathed his sword and remounted, nodding for the prince to lead the way. If the dragons could make Matthew smile like that, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

0000000

The forest thinned as they started to make their way into the mountains proper. There were no paths to follow except for the one the prince seemed to know from memory alone, the horses picking their way carefully across the slopes and around ridges.

"So how many dragons are there?" Shiro asked as they paused to get their bearings on an outcropping. Below them, the foothills and forests stretched as far as he could see in a majestic panorama.

"At last tour? Seven." Matthew took a swallow from his canteen and capped it, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as he glanced over at Shiro. He seemed almost pleased by the curiosity.

"That's it? That seems...low." For the amount of destruction they were supposed to have wrought, that didn't seem like nearly enough. Just seven dragons across all this space?

The prince's smile fell and he exhaled slowly, gazing out over the mountains. "There used to be a lot more, but humans killed most of them. Either defending their fields, or taking revenge. If it wasn't for the decree, we probably would have wiped them out completely." His voice was soft, and Shiro's heart ached for the unexpected sadness in his gaze. "As it is, seven is an improvement. Green's new, moved into the range a few years ago."

"Tell me about them?" Shiro asked impulsively. Anything to get that sad expression off the prince's face.

He was rewarded by a small smile, and a spark of brightness in the prince's eyes as he turned his horse and started off again. "It would be my pleasure. You've met Green, obviously. She's a juvenile female, whose home territory is over that way." He gestured closer to the border, now behind them as they worked their way along the spine of the mountains.

Shiro sputtered. "Juvenile? As in not fully grown? But she's huge!" He protested, keeping close behind the prince's horse so they could talk more easily.

The prince laughed and nodded. "Trust me, she's nothing. She was a lot smaller when she arrived, but she's been growing like a weed. Put on at least a foot in the shoulder since I saw her last." He grinned.

Shiro gaped, trying to imagine what she would be like full-grown, and failed. He shook his head in dismay. "I guess that's good that she's growing, at least?" He offered, earning another pleased grin from the prince, who nodded.

The prince went on to describe the rest of the dragons who resided in the mountain range. Their next stop, he said, would be Yellow, an older male with two half-grown young that had been dubbed Stone and Anvil. Yellow's mate had been killed by humans sometime before the decree, sadly, but Yellow seemed to manage well enough on his own. Then after that would be Red, another adult male who could be a bit temperamental so Shiro would need to be on his best behaviour, and Blue, an adult female who was as different from Red as night from day.

Shiro frowned as he counted on his fingers. "That's only six."

"The other one is Black." Matthew said, as if that explained everything, most of his concentration on navigating a sticky slope of loose gravel that threatened to slide under their weight.

"Black?"

"She doesn't like people. Not even me." The prince clarified, glancing up for a moment before looking at the ground again and adjusting his path slightly. "I usually see her watching me off and on during my tours, but she won't come near me, and I still haven't found her cave. So I just leave her be."

"Huh. Fair enough." Shiro couldn't help scanning the distant peaks, trying to make out the shape of a dragon against the uneven stone. But if Black was up there keeping an eye on the human trespassers in her territory, he couldn't make her out. The horse stumbled and he quickly refocused his attention on the ground under him instead of around him.

He glanced up occasionally, hoping to spot Black somewhere, as they worked their way deeper into the mountains. But then suddenly Matt was sliding down with an excited grin and looping his reins around an outcropping and gesturing for Shiro to do the same. "Come on. I think they're all home right now." He called, disappearing around a curve of stone.

Mouth dry with sudden trepidation, Shiro dismounted and followed somewhat more circumspectly. Around the corner he found a yawning cave mouth in the side of a cliff, with the prince's footsteps echoing inside it. The interior was cool and dry, the stone all shades of red and brown and grey. The prince was already out of sight, so Shiro pressed deeper, circling a huge outcrop of yellowish stone on one side of the cave.

Then the yellow rocks shifted and he realized it wasn't an outcropping at all.

He swore his heart stopped in his chest as the huge head reared up almost to the ceiling to stare down at him, blinking slowly as Shiro stared back, frozen in terror. Suddenly he understood very clearly how Matthew knew that Green was a juvenile.

The tableau was broken by the prince poking his head around the dragon's muscular shoulder. "There you are! Come meet Stone and Anvil!" He exclaimed, grinning cheerfully before ducking back again. Shiro swallowed hard, glancing from where he had been, back up at the dragon regarding him steadily from above, then edged sideways nervously until he could dart around the corner.

Matthew was crouched by a rust-coloured dragon, sketching furiously as he studied one wing that was stretched out in front of him. "Thank you, Stone. That's very nice. You'll be flying in no time, won't you?" He grinned up at the young dragon, who head-butted him gently and made a peculiar warbling noise.

Shiro edged up behind him, glancing around at the three dragons. Yellow was a towering behemoth, curled up on the floor and watching them, but his posture seemed relaxed, limbs folded under him lazily. By comparison, Stone and Anvil were tiny, their shoulders not much higher than Matthew's head.

"They've grown a lot since last year." Matthew commented, half to Shiro and half to himself as he took rapid notes. "More than over the years previous. I think they must be hitting a growth spurt."

"Dragon puberty?" Shiro suggested, taking a step back as Anvil poked his grey head towards him curiously.

The prince hummed, tapping his chin thoughtfully with his pencil. "You know, that could be it, actually. I don't have enough data on dragon growth patterns, but Green seems nearly mature, if small, and at the rate they're going these two will catch up to her soon. Although they'll probably be bigger at final growth than she is."

"With Yellow as their father I'd be surprised if they weren't." Shiro commented dryly, eyeing the massive adult again. Yellow had settled his head down on his paws, and the skull had to be six feet long if it was an inch.

Matthew laughed and nodded, straightening out of his crouch. Patting the two young dragons gently, he made his way over to Yellow. "Hey big guy. How are you doing?" He asked, voice tender.

Shiro settled down onto a rock to watch as the prince set to work examining the enormous dragon, seeking out old scars and prodding them gently, and measuring the scales that seemed as thick as plate armor over Yellow's shoulders and haunches. Being inside a dragon's den, with the dragon between them and the entrance, should have been terrifying, but he couldn't quite bring himself to be afraid watching the relaxed way Yellow allowed Matthew to climb on him as he examined every inch, or the two younger dragons curling up together on a sandy section of the cave floor.

Finally the prince seemed to be satisfied, sliding down off Yellow's shoulder and saying a quick farewell. Once they were outside, Shiro blinked in surprise to see the sun so low in the sky. They'd been in the cave for hours and he hadn't even realized, too caught up in watching the prince work.

"We'd better find a place to make camp for the night." He pointed out as they made their way back over to the horses, who were dozing contentedly in the evening sun.

The prince glanced at the sun and nodded distractedly, still writing furiously. He was so focused on his book that he didn't watch where he as going. Shiro heard the yelp and whirled on the spot, reaching out to grab the prince and yank him away from the edge as the soft sandstone crumbled under his feet. Clutching the other to his chest, he backed up quickly in case of further collapse.

"Are you alright?" He asked, once he was sure they were safe. He glanced down and felt his cheeks heat up as he realized Prince Matthew was crushed against him, wide-eyed with shock.

"I-I'm fine. Yes. Fine." The prince stammered, cheeks flushed, probably from the adrenaline of the near miss. "I'm okay. Thank you."

Shiro coughed and hastily let go of the prince, missing the disappointed expression that flashed across the other's face. "Glad to hear it. Be a shame if you spent the day climbing all over a dragon only to die falling down a hill." He joked, trying to regain his equilibrium after the close call and the feeling of holding the gorgeous man in his arms.

The indignant splutter and the way Matthew's eyes narrowed helped ease the shaking off his hands a little. "Excuse you." He pressed a hand to his chest dramatically. "I'll have you know I've been falling down hills ever since I was a kid and I have not died even once!"

"Well, obviously." Shiro snorted, swinging up into the saddle. "We wouldn't exactly be having this conversation otherwise."

He laughed as the prince let out a frustrated noise behind him and kneed his horse forward carefully. They would have to find a safer spot to bed down for the night.

0000000

It took them almost the entire next day to reach the isolated spot where Red apparently made his nest, deep among a forest of windworn stone columns in a mountain pass, but neither of them could have expected what they found when they reached it.

"I don't understand. He should be here!" Matthew's voice was heavy with distress as he studied the thick layer of dust and debris that had accumulated on the cave floor, examining every inch as if some trace to indicate the presence of the missing dragon would appear if he simply stared long enough. The surface was undisturbed, though, except for their own footprints. It was all to clear no one had been here in several months.

Shiro hated to admit it, but he was worried too. The prince had talked non-stop on their way here about the small, agile red dragon, grumpy but affectionate in his own way, and Shiro had almost been looking forward to meeting him. And he hated seeing Matt so distressed.

Looking into the depths of the cave as if they held the answers, Shiro stepped forward and put a hand on Matthew's shoulder. "Maybe he moved somewhere else?" He suggested quietly. "You said Green moved here a few years ago. Maybe Red decided to move away?"

"Maybe..." The prince closed his eyes and took a deep breath, casting around once more with a forlorn expression. "I hope that's the case."

"I'm sure that must be it." Shiro tried to inject more confidence in his tone. "We would have heard something in one of the towns if he'd been hunted. And a flyer as skilled as you say Red is wouldn't just crash in a storm."

"It could have been illness..." Matthew was obviously running all kinds of awful scenarios in his head. "An infected hunting injury..."

"Both of which probably would have had him home in his cave. And he's definitely not here, alive or dead." Shiro countered firmly.

That did get a small nod of acknowledgement from the prince, and he allowed Shiro to tug him gently to his feet. "Come on." Shiro said softly, putting a comforting arm around the prince's shoulders. "We'll camp just outside, in case he decides to show up tonight. You never know." He knew it was probably wishful thinking, but some hope was better than none at all.

That night, he sat awake keeping watch, after coaxing the prince to get some rest. He was whittling idly at a piece of wood when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

A dark shape was moving against the stars, and for a moment he thought it might actually be Red after all. Then he decided that no, it wasn't. The shape he was seeing, silhouetted against the night sky, was too big and too powerful in its movements to be the speedy dragon Matthew had described. Then it turned and swooped low, passing overhead close enough that a draft made the fire buck and whirl in the air. As it passed, the light gleamed off smooth black scales, a pale underbelly, and curving golden horns.

Black, Shiro realized. Checking up on them just like the prince had said. How long had she been watching them?

He soon lost track of her in the darkness. But at least he'd be able to reassure the prince that one other dragon was alive and well and where she ought to be.

The news did perk Matthew up slightly the next morning, but he was still morose and quiet as they left the abandoned nest. There was none of the witty banter and humorous anecdotes that they usually passed the time with, only a grim silence and a downcast look on the prince's face. If there'd been any doubt left in Shiro's mind about how much the dragons meant to the prince, this would have banished it. But there was nothing he could think of to say that would ease the obvious heartache over Red's unexplained disappearance.

They travelled in silence, Shiro following Matt's lead as they headed downhill, to where an icy glacial river cut a steep-sided canyon through the mountain range. Twice Shiro spotted a black shape watching them from a spire in the distance, but when he tried to point her out, she always seemed to be gone by the time he looked back again.

Blue's cave was even harder to reach than Red's had been, accessible only by climbing down a cliff face to a wide ledge that ran just above the surface of the churning river, then up another one into the cave itself. Shiro had to pick his way carefully across the stone, but the prince moved nimbly, with the ease of long practice. As they approached the cave, however, Shiro caught an unmistakably anxious look on the other man's face. He didn't need to ask to guess at the cause. If Red was gone, would Blue be missing too?

There was a hesitance in the prince's stride as they entered the cave itself, moving cautiously among the stalagmites that sprouted from the floor. Dragon feet had worn an obvious path through the stone, breaking off any that grew large enough to obstruct movement or injure paws. Shiro studied the ground and smiled. "No dust." He pointed out, shooting Matthew a hopeful grin.

The amber eyes lit up, and the prince picked up the pace across the floor of the cave. As they moved deeper, Shiro's ears caught an odd rustling, scraping noise. Matthew obviously heard it too, frowning and taking a couple of quick steps to where the floor dropped steeply downwards. All Shiro heard was an inarticulate exclamation and then the prince was gone, scrambling over the edge and disappearing from view.

"Your highness!" Shiro hissed and darted after him, hurrying down without even taking a look to see what was going on. He got to the bottom and turned around, then promptly froze.

In the center of the cave floor, napping in a tangled pile of limbs, was a group of the smallest dragons Shiro had yet seen. Some were too intertwined to distinguish, but the one flopping on its belly off to the side couldn't have been any bigger than a pony once it was on its feet. There was absolutely no question as to what they were seeing. These were hatchlings. Dragon hatchlings.

Dragon hatchlings whose nest the crown prince had just climbed into and was headed straight for, cooing softly about how adorable they were with the dopiest smile on his face as if there wasn't a very real possibility of the parents coming back and frying him for the intrusion.

"Your highness! Get back here!" Shiro hissed, frantically scanning the cave around them for any sign of the parent dragons.

If he heard him, Matthew was ignoring him, instead dropping to his knees beside the snoring sprawled hatchling and caressing one eye ridge with the most delicate touch. To Shiro's dismay, the little one roused, blinking sleepily the newcomer in its nest.

Grimacing, Shiro edged closer, trying to get close enough to grab the prince and run. The other hatchlings were waking now, roused by the curious chirps of the first one as it pawed at Matthew and tried to lick his cheek. A corner of Shiro's mind noted that there were six altogether, the blue one that he'd woken first, one with bright red scales, another that was purple, and three more also in various shades of blue. The purple one wobbled to its feet and approached Matthew as well, while the red one sniffed cautiously from a distance. The other three seemed content to stay where they were.

"Your highness, we really should get out of here." Shiro muttered through gritted teeth. "Going into an adults cave is one thing. But going into a nest with hatchlings is quite another!"

The prince looked up at him with an exasperated expression. "Shirogane, it's fine. These are definitely Blue's hatchlings-they're in her cave and they have her ear fins." He stroked one of them carefully on the blue hatchling by his shoulder, eliciting a noise that sounded almost like a purr. "And Blue definitely won't mind."

Shiro opened his mouth, intending to respond, something about how the prince couldn't possibly know that when he'd never even seen hatchling dragons before, let alone been in their nest. But the words were drowned out by a loud rumble from somewhere off to one side that roused the other three hatchlings and sent all six of them squeaking and chirping over to a massive blue head that had dipped over the edge to nuzzle them and clean them with a long, dark tongue.

His heart dropped through the floor, and his mouth went dry as the desert. Too late. The parent dragon was here.

And Matthew, seemingly bound and determined to see Shiro silver-haired before his time, had scrambled to his feet and was running over to the dragon and her babies with a cry of delight. "Blue!"

Massive jaws opened, and Shiro honestly expected to see the prince either fried to a crisp or bitten in two right in front of his eyes while he stood rooted to the spot. But instead the long tongue extended again and licked him from waist to hairline, sending the prince's hair sticking out crazily on one side. Matthew laughed in delight and hugged the scaly blue nose. "Missed you too, Blue. Congratulations on the babies! They're amazing!"

Shiro's heart finally started beating again and he sank to the floor and closed his eyes for a moment. This man was going to be the death of him.

Another rumbling noise behind him startled him out of his attempt at regaining his composure. Hurling himself sideways and turning to try to see what new threat was coming up behind him, he saw a sleek red dragon emerge from the stalagmite field and step gracefully down into the sandy nest. It ignored Shiro entirely, striding across to nuzzle first Blue, then the hatchlings.

"Red!" Shiro realized at the same time as he heard Matt's stunned, joyful exclamation. The red dragon hadn't left. He'd moved in with his mate.

Looking over, Shiro couldn't help a small smile at the utter relief on the prince's face as he hugged Red's enormous chest as best he could and berated the dragon for scaring him. Red, for his part, seemed bemused but pleased, making a soft whuffing noise in Matt's face that produced a trace of white smoke and made Matthew giggle.

The rest of the world really did have dragons all wrong, didn't they? As hard as it had been to accept that fact, he couldn't argue against it anymore. Not when the prince was stroking two huge scaly noses with a joyful grin on his face, only to nearly get knocked off his feet by a curious headbutt from a hatchling bumping the back of his thighs. Exhaling slowly, Shiro got to his feet, adjusted his scabbard further back out of the way, and walked towards the group. "So. You're the Red Prince Matthew was so worried about." He admonished lightly, looking up into the dragon's golden eyes.

The dragon let out a startled huff, seeming surprised by his temerity, but out of the corner of his eye Shiro saw the prince's head whip around to stare at him incredulously before a brilliant smile spread across his face. He rose to his feet, moving to stand beside Shiro. "Red, this is Sir Shirogane. Olia got hurt and couldn't come with me this year, so he was chosen instead."

Red let out another rumble, leaning closer, and Shiro tried not to flinch at the huge eyes just feet from his own, or the smoky smell as the dragon sniffed him thoroughly.

Whatever he smelled of, he seemed to meet the dragon's approval, Red pulling back and snorting before shuffling his wings and turning away to nuzzle Blue. Matt gave a delighted laugh. "I think he likes you." He said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"I'll take your word for it." Shiro sighed, trying very hard not to sink to the ground from how his legs felt jellied with relief. "I thought for sure we were dead meat for coming into the nest."

"I told you, Blue likes me." the prince stuck out his tongue mischievously. Then his smile softened. "So, do you-"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as two of the hatchlings, wrestling and squawking, nearly bowled them over and forced them to dodge in either direction. A third, following them at an ungainly run, paused to peer at the prince and flap their wings.

Matt grinned. "Alright. Looks like we've got a volunteer for the first examination. Shirogane, come give me a hand."

Within a few moments, Shiro abruptly found himself put to work holding limbs still so the prince could measure them, a task made immensely more difficult by the boundless curiosity of the babies who insisted on twisting and contorting their bodies to watch them work, not to mention the constant disruptions by other hatchlings sticking their noses into their work to see what was going on. Their hides were unexpectedly soft, and Shiro found himself worrying that he would do their delicate wings an injury.

"They're stronger than they look." The prince assured him when he voiced his concern over spreading out one of the blue hatchlings' wings. The prince was measuring the length of each bone and the edges of the sails, making rapid notations in his notebook as he went. "Dragon bone is strong stuff."

That was true enough. Weapons carved from dragon bone went for a fortune for their durability and lasting sharpness relative to their weight. Although Shiro found himself a bit nauseous at the thought of the slender wing bones he was holding being skinned and carved. The thought of anything happening to the hatchlings, for that matter, was horrifying.

Which was why he was every bit as dismayed as the prince was when he started looking over the red hatchling, who Matthew had dubbed "Glow", and found a swollen gash several inches long in the side of the left hind leg.

"Might be from eggshell. There's no stalagmites down here. But that needs help regardless." the prince was muttering as he rummaged through his satchel frantically while Shiro stroked the small dragon's nose soothingly. "Hold him still, this is going to sting." He added, producing a small bundle of medicinal supplies from the bottom of his bag.

Shiro braced the limb obediently as Matthew started applying a salve to the wound, but Glow shrieked and tried to thrash away from him. Behind him, Shiro could hear a pair of startled growls and scales scraping over stone as Blue and Red were alerted by the cry, but he didn't dare look, all his attention on trying to calm the hatchling in his arms.

Matt worked quickly, setting aside the salve for some kind of resin, squeezing the lips of the wound together with one hand and applying the glue delicately to the edges with the other. His face was screwed up in concentration, trying to balance speed with precision as he sealed the injury against further infection.

"Done. Let him go." He said finally, settling back on his heels. Shiro was only too glad to do so and Glow ran, limping over to his parents who both nuzzled and looked him over, Red glancing up just long enough to give the two humans a warning snort with smoke billowing from his nostrils.

The prince exhaled slowly, wiping sweat from his brow. "Hopefully that will be enough." He said softly, watching Blue nudge Glow over to where his two brothers, Talon and Arrow, and three sisters, Ice, River, and Valour, were already settling for a nap.

"I'm sure it will be." Shiro glanced over and gave the prince a confident smile. "If anyone can doctor a baby dragon successfully, you can."

Letting out a startled laugh, Matthew flashed him a smile, cheeks red at the praise. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Shiro chuckled and waved a hand to dismiss the gratitude. Glancing back at the family one last time, he pushed himself to his feet. "Come on. We should head out and find a place to make camp. Leave these little sweethearts to their nap."

They retraced their steps back to the horses as the sun was setting, and travelled a short distance further to find a good spot to set up camp away from Red and Blue's cave. Dinner was spent with the prince excitedly recounting his observations on the hatchlings and their nest and the bounty of new information it gave him about the dragons' life cycles. Shiro mostly listened, but he didn't mind one bit with Matt so happy talking about what Shiro had realized was his favourite topic in the world.

As Shiro carefully banked the fire for the night, he felt eyes on him and realized the prince had fallen silent and was looking at him with an oddly contemplative expression, his chin resting in his palm. Shiro raised an eyebrow questioningly as he pulled his bag closer to grab his bedroll.

"So." The prince asked softly, still watching him closely, his bright amber eyes unreadable in the reflected glow of the campfire. "Do you still think dragons are dangerous monsters?"

Shiro snorted, glancing down for a moment to undo the ties before looking up again with a lopsided smile. "If I did, would I have helped you with Glow's leg while both his parents were right there in fire-breathing range?"

Matthew laughed and straightened, reaching for his own bedroll. "No, I suppose not." He admitted, unwrapping it and spreading it out on a decently smooth area of rocky ground. "But I'm glad to hear it anyway. Goodnight, Shirogane."

"Goodnight, your highness." Shiro called back from the other side of the fire. He settled into his own bedding and rolled onto his back, staring up at the stars. Sometimes Prince Matthew was a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma. And it only made Shiro like him more.

0000000

Over the next few days, they picked their way carefully back down out of the mountains, following the river toward the grassland and forests below. Their tour of the dragons' caves had taken them nearly all the way back to the eastern border, and the going here was more treacherous and left little attention to spare for talking.

A few times, as they stopped to rest and water the horses and have a bite to eat on a more level and stable stretch, Shiro caught glimpses of a black shape on one of the nearby peaks. But whenever he tried to point her out to the prince, Black was gone by the time he turned around again.

The prince waved off his apologies with a sigh. "It's not your fault. She's got her own reasons for doing what she does. And besides," he added, flashing Shiro a small smile that made his heart race. "I'm just glad to know she's doing okay. That's enough for me."

0000000

After navigating the uncertain terrain in the mountains, it was a relief to be back on flat ground. So much so that they pressed on into the twilight, rather than stopping to find a place to make camp while the sun still sat above the horizon. If they hadn't, maybe things would have turned out differently. If Shiro hadn't been lost in the prince's smile and the way his eyes shone with the colours of the setting sun, maybe he would have seen it coming.

As it was, they did, and he was, and he didn't.

One moment they were riding easily, talking and laughing as the prince recounted some anecdote from behind the palace walls. The next, the prince's laughter choked off in a cry of pain that was nearly drowned out by the horses' screams.

Shiro barely had time to take in the sight of the arrow protruding from the prince's knee, his face gritted with pain as his horse collapsed to its knees with two more arrows embedded in its chest, and register his own horse staggering in pain underneath him. Bandits were spilling from the woods ahead, some already notching more arrows to the string and others charging forward with ferocious cries, their swords glinting blood red in the last light of day.

Instinct and training took over and he wheeled his horse, despite its injuries, putting himself between the bandits and the prince and drawing his own sword with his teeth bared. Internally he cursed himself for foolishly letting down his guard.

The bandits had chosen their ambush well, the river at their backs too fast and rocky to attempt a crossing and the steep mountains a distant wall to their right. The bandits had cut them off from the other two directions, leaving them well and truly trapped. And even if there had been an avenue of escape, with one horse injured and the other dying, there would have been no outrunning their attackers for long.

The only option was to stand and fight.

Shiro's world became a blur of flesh and steel as the first bandits reached him, his sword flashing through the air and the dusk becoming loud with screams and rage. He barely registered the slowing of his blade where it cut, merely adjusting and moving on. He never noticed his horse being cut from under him, rolling as it fell and coming up swinging, or the sting of sweat in cuts he hadn't even felt. All his focus was on the fight, on protecting Matthew and saving his life.

A searing pain in his right arm, however, jolted him out of his rhythm and he staggered backwards, trying to get his bearings and fumbling to shift his sword to his left hand from a right arm that refused to properly respond. His assailant didn't give him a chance, pressing the attack with a vicious grin and swinging his sword in a slice that nearly took Shiro's head off. He barely managed to avoid the fatal blow, but the blade still scored a deep gash across the bridge of Shiro's nose that sent blood dripping down his cheeks.

A cry from behind him split his attention once again, and he parried the next attack on instinct alone, clumsy with his off hand. Two bandits had circled him and grabbed the prince, twisting his arm behind his back and grabbing his hair. One pulled out a wicked-looking knife and Matthew froze, his face ashen as the blade was held to his throat. Amber eyes sought Shiro's, silently pleading with him for help.

"No!" Shiro lunged to protect him, but his path was blocked. Everywhere he looked, he saw bandits, cruel and smirking. He swayed slightly on the spot, chest heaving, his right arm heavy with lost blood and throwing him further off balance. The sun had set, and only the flickering light of lanterns tied to the saddles of bandit horses remained to illuminate the scene, casting twisting, writhing shadows that seemed to multiply his opponents a hundred-fold. Shiro struggled to hold onto his sword with fingers rapidly losing their strength, the world blurring and swaying around him. Matthew. He had to protect Matthew. The bandits were manhandling the prince towards one of their horses now.

A distant flicker of movement caught Shiro's eye, far beyond the bandits closing in. A black shadow on a peak still catching the last rays of the sun, gold glinting at the edges of a sleek head.

Shiro stared at the dragon, watching them as she had been for the last two weeks. "Black. Please." He whispered.

He wasn't sure if the words had left his lips before the world went dark.

0000000

The feeling of something cool and damp on his forehead roused him.

He groaned, trying to shift away from it as the cold made him shiver. Close by, someone let out an inarticulate exclamation and removed the cold object, pressing something soft and warm in its place that made Shiro sigh in relief.

A heavy sigh nearby, then a gentle touch to his cheek. "Shirogane? Can you hear me?"

Shiro's tongue felt heavy in his mouth, defying his attempt to answer, and it seemed to take far more effort than it should to incline his head in a small nod. Forcing his eyes open was an equally difficult and exhausting process, but after a moment he managed it, revealing a blurry orange form in front of his face. He had to blink a few times before the image came into focus, revealing the concerned face of Prince Matthew leaning over him.

The other man's face broke into a relieved smile at the sight of his attention. "Thank the gods..." He murmured, sitting back on his heels. "You're finally awake."

Finally awake? Slowly, Shiro tried to take stock of his surroundings. A hard surface underneath him and gray stone high overhead suggested they were in a cave of some sort, and he could hear and smell a fire close by. Something softer was under his head, and a light pressure on top was probably a blanket. But he was still lost as to what exactly had happened. He tried to sit up and regretted it instantly, lightning bolts of pain shooting through his body the moment he attempted to move his right arm and sending him slumping back with a gasp.

"No, no, don't try to move!" The prince's hands were on his chest, pushing him back down as if he needed the encouragement. "Those bandits really messed you up."

Bandits. He remembered now. The ambush, the fight. Matthew pinned and being dragged away. Being hurt and surrounded. "How...?" He tried to ask, chest heaving and teeth gritted as he willed the pain to subside.

There was a pause, the prince turning away for a moment before returning with a rough wooden bowl that he pressed to Shiro's lips. "Drink first." He ordered gently. "You're dehydrated from the fever."

Shiro didn't need to be told twice, gulping down the cold water eagerly until the bowl was empty and letting the liquid ease his parched throat. When it was gone he slumped back against the makeshift pillow, breathing hard from even that slight exertion. He closed his eyes for a moment until he felt better able to speak. "What happened?"

"We got ambushed by bandits along the river. Do you remember that?" The prince asked, setting the bowl aside. He rearranged his limbs carefully, and Shiro caught a wince of pain and scraps of cloth tied around his knee where the pant leg had been cut away.

"I remember. How's your leg?" Shiro turned his head to better see the injury, and felt pain across his face as a bandage he hadn't noticed pressed against his cheeks, forcing him to turn back a bit.

The prince snorted, one hand resting on the injured limb. "I'll live. Not a lot I can do for an embedded arrowhead out here, but I've been keeping it clean and staying off of it." He patted a length of wood off to one side, obviously an improvised crutch.

"Good." Shiro gave him a small smile, relieved beyond measure to detect no trace of a lie in the prince's expression. "Any other injuries I should know about?"

He was caught off guard when the prince made a choked noise, somewhere between disgust and frustration. "Why are you so worried about me? You're the one that almost died!" he demanded. He huffed, and Shiro was alarmed to see the shine of tears in the amber eyes.

"I didn't..." he started to protest weakly.

"Yes, you did!" Matthew cut him off sharply, making Shiro's jaw snap shut painfully. "When I saw you collapse, I honestly thought you were dead, Shirogane. I've never been so scared in my life. If Black hadn't shown up when she did..." He scrubbed furiously at his eyes with his sleeve.

"Black?" Shiro repeated dumbly, unable to take his eyes off the prince's pained expression that was making guilt sit like an anchor in his heart.

Matthew nodded, taking a deep breath and pressing a hand over his eyes. "Yes. Black. She swooped down and sent those bandits screaming for their mothers, at least the ones she didn't tear apart or fry." There was a vindictive edge to his voice that caught Shiro by surprise, before he softened and gave him a distressed look. "I was barely able to stop the bleeding in time, and as it is you've been unconscious with a raging fever for the past four days."

The revelation made him reel. Four days? He'd nearly died? He swallowed hard, mouth dry with shock.

And the prince had obviously been tending him, and worried sick the entire time, a fact that made Shiro's heart twist painfully in his chest for the distress he'd caused. "I'm sorry." He said softly, cautiously reaching out with his uninjured arm to take Matthew's hand and give it a gentle squeeze. "I'm alright now, I promise."

The prince let out a startled noise, before shaking his head and squeezing Shiro's hand back in return and making his heart turn a somersault in his chest. "Yes. Thank god, your fever's finally broken. But don't you try to move until I say you can. Your arm is a mess, and so is your face, I'm afraid."

"It's fine. Battle scars are supposed to be attractive, right?" Shiro sighed, obediently settling back down. "Especially heroic ones."

The prince let out another odd noise, his cheeks darkening at Shiro's comment, and Shiro thought he'd best shut up before the prince started scolding him again. The ache of his arm and face was starting to make it hard to think, anyway, and he closed his eyes, trying to will the pain away.

There was another soft sigh, and a gentle hand touched his hair. "Rest, Shirogane. You need it."

Before he could protest that he was only resting his eyes for a moment, sleep was already carrying Shiro away.

00000000

The next time Shiro woke, he was alone, and the aches and pains had subsided a bit. Looking around, he found he was laying on one of the bedrolls on the floor of an enormous cave whose roof arched high above him. It wasn't any of the caves they'd already visited, he knew that much, none of them had been this large, and this place had walls that were oddly smooth, as though they'd been scoured even by the wind.

Caught up for a moment in studying the odd surface, he nearly missed a strange scraping noise behind him. Then something moved out of the corner of his eye.

Off to one side of the cave, resting her massive head on clawed forelimbs, was the biggest dragon Shiro had ever seen. From delicate snout to the base of her curved golden horns must have been nearly as long as Shiro was tall. And even laying down, he could sense the immense power coiled in her muscles, and sense the intelligence behind the piercing gaze of her half-closed brilliant blue eyes.

This was Black's cave, he realized belatedly. She hadn't just saved them, the aloof, wary dragon had brought them to the safety of her own home.

Moving slowly, as much out of concern for his own injuries as from a desire to not startle the dragon, Shiro pushed himself up into a sitting position, cradling his injured arm carefully against his chest. Despite the awkward position, he folded himself over in as much of a bow as he could manage. "Thank you for saving us." He told Black.

He wasn't sure whether she could actually understand him or not, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to do, and, looking into those bottomless blue eyes, he almost felt as though she could. Black gazed back at him without any change of expression for several long seconds before turning her head away towards the back of the cave.

"I thought I told you not to move?"

The unexpected voice made him jump, and he hissed as he inadvertently shifted his arm in an automatic readiness to defend himself. Looking up, he saw the prince coming around from the other side of the dragon, leaning heavily on his crutch and looking thoroughly exasperated.

"Honestly, you're as bad as Pidge..." Matt complained as he limped over, sitting down heavily beside him. "But since you're upright, I might as well change your dressings. Hold still." He ordered, reaching into his pack and pulling out a bottle of salve and scraps of fabric that Shiro recognized as having once belonged to his own shirt. Not giving Shiro a chance to argue, he set to work, untying the knots holding the improvised bandage in place with deft, gentle hands. Shiro did as he was told, keeping his arm still. As the bloody fabric fell away he got his first look at the injury he'd sustained.

It was a long gash about halfway between his elbow and his shoulder, running nearly horizontal across almost a third of the circumference of his arm. The prince had closed it with small, neat stitches, pressing the lips of the wound together without puckering them. As he watched, Matthew began carefully washing away the crust of old salve with a scrap of cloth that he wet with water from a roughly-carved wooden bowl.

Even with the prince's delicacy of touch, the contact hurt, and Shiro had to grit his teeth. "How does a prince get so good at medicine?" He asked between carefully controlled breaths, trying to distract himself from the discomfort.

The prince chuckled softly, but it had an oddly sad note to it. "When that prince is determined to be able to look after himself, and make sure that nobody has to die for him if he can possibly help it." He answered, rinsing the cloth and dabbing at a stubborn crusty patch.

Shiro stared at the prince in surprise. Whatever answer he'd expected, that was definitely not it. "...You sound as if you speak from experience." He blurted without thinking, caught off-guard by the ache in the prince's voice.

For a moment, the prince froze. Then, silently, he finished washing the old salve and got to work applying the new layer from what remained in the jar after tending to Glow and caring for the injury for the last few days. "Yes. I do." He said finally, and this time there was no mistaking the sadness in his tone.

Internally cursing for bringing up what was obviously a painful topic, Shiro didn't say anything else as the prince finished dressing and re-bandaging his arm. Instead he settled for a quiet thank-you as the last knot was tied. "You have a delicate touch, your highness." He said as he re-settled his arm carefully against his chest.

"Matt."

"I beg your pardon?" Shiro blinked, glancing over at the prince who was looking at him with a wry smile.

"I said, you can call me Matt." The prince chuckled as he put away the salve and the remaining cloth. "We've spent the last month together, and saved each other's lives. There's really no need to be so formal anymore."

For a moment, all Shiro could do was stare, his heart beating a rapid tattoo in his chest. The crown prince was inviting him to call him not just by his first name, but by a nickname? Heat suffused his cheeks, and it took him a minute to find the words to respond. "Takashi." He said finally, the words tumbling over each other in their haste to get out of his mouth once he realized he still hadn't answered. "My name is Takashi."

The prince-no, Matt-smiled, his own cheeks flushing with colour for reasons Shiro couldn't fathom. "Takashi." He said slowly, as if he were tasting it. "That's a lovely name."

He pushed himself carefully to his feet, balancing himself against the stick as he leaned down to grab the bowl of dirty water. "You should get some more rest. I'll have something ready to eat by the time you wake up." He instructed over his shoulder as he started making his way cautiously toward the mouth of the cave.

Watching him go, all Shiro could do was what he'd been told, but sleep eluded him. Instead he stared at the cave roof, thinking of the way his name had sounded in Matt's voice.

0000000

"Matt, can I ask you something?" Shiro asked after swallowing down a chunk of roasted deer meat. Unable to sleep, he'd spent the afternoon resting his body and watching the goings-on in the cave. Matt had replenished the water from some unknown source, then returned to sit by him and written in his journal for a while. Then Black had risen to her feet, proving herself even larger than his initial estimate, and moved to the cave entrance and disappeared. What had really stunned him was when she'd returned. Both forepaws clutched large branches of dead wood several feet in length, while an entire deer carcass was clutched in her jaws. Instead of gulping down the carcass, she had dragged all three items deep into the cave and deposited them near the two humans, where Matt promptly set to work building up a fire and dressing the carcass for cooking.

Across from him, Matt looked up from his own dinner and blinked curiously. "Of course. What's on your mind?" He asked, slicing off another chunk with his dagger and spearing it easily.

Shiro paused, trying to consider the best choice of words for what he wanted to ask. "How, exactly, does a crown prince end up doing all...this?" He gestured to the cave around them, and Black snoring peacefully at the rear of the cavern, in an attempt to encompass everything he meant, from their journey through the mountains to the comfortable way the dragons interacted with him, as if he were a known friend.

Matt paused, then set the flat rock he was using as a dinner plate aside. "You mean, how does a crown prince end up caring so much about the dragons that not so many years ago were ravaging his own kingdom?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

Shiro nodded, conceding that that was at least one of the things he had wondered.

Matt hummed softly, rubbing his thumbs together in thought for a moment before letting out a quiet breath. "Let me tell you a story, Takashi."

"Once, there was a kingdom. It was great, and wealthy, and the people were prosperous and happy. Except for one small thing. For generations, the dragons who lived in the southern mountains had attacked them, carrying off livestock and horses and sometimes humans. The humans of course fought back, defending their livelihoods and hunting any dragon they could reach or that came within range of their homes. In retaliation, the dragons sometimes would avenge their fallen, burning fields or entire towns and killing the humans within. And this constant state of war was seen as an inevitability of life, at least until the dragons could be wiped forever from the face of the kingdom."

Pausing, the prince took a drink of water from the bowl and continued, staring into the surface. "Now, this kingdom was ruled by a king and queen, and they had two children, an older prince and a younger princess. And for a long time they all believed the same as the people, that the dragons had to be destroyed."

"One day, however, the prince, just ten years old, was out riding in the forests beyond the palace. While dragons sometimes flew high overhead here, the attacks were always far to the south, and he believed himself safe from any threat from man or monster. And while that may have been true, he failed to take into account the beasts. A group of wolves burst from the forest and chased his horse, bringing it to the ground and spilling the prince into the dirt, helpless and vulnerable with no weapons and nowhere to run."

His food forgotten, Shiro listened with rapt attention to Matt's story. The words painted an all-too-vivid picture of a much younger Matt, frightened and cornered by vicious wolves and his heart twisted at the thought.

"But the wolves never had the chance to lay so much as a paw on the young prince. A huge shadow passed overhead, startling the wolves into pausing for just a moment, and then a great form descended from the sky. A dragon, silver-white in colour, landed on the ground behind the prince and shielded him with its wings before roaring and striking out with its claws. In short order, all the wolves were dead or fleeing, and the prince and the dragon were all that remained."

Matt's lips were quirked in a sad smile, his gaze distant as he let himself relive the memory. "The prince was terrified. He'd been taught that dragons were monsters, killers, and this one had just wiped out an entire pack of wolves as if they were no more than dead leaves to be broken underfoot. But to his surprise, this one made no move to hurt him. Instead it settled to the ground and curled around him, warmth against the setting sun and shield against the wind. It had just saved the prince's life from the wolves, and was preparing to do so again, by protecting him from the deadly chill of the night."

"Unfortunately," Matt said softly, his lips turning downwards, "the prince's absence from the palace had been noted, and a squad of guardsmen sent out to search. And when they saw the downed horse, and the prince seemingly cornered by the dragon, they automatically assumed the worst."

There was a pause, a silence filled only by the crackling of the fire before Matt continued. "The dragon could easily have fled into the air and escaped. But it didn't. Determined to protect a lost human child from what it saw as a threat, it stayed on the ground, curled around the prince, and trying to fight the spears and arrows and swords of the guards. The prince pleaded with the guards to stop, but if they heard it over the roars and shouting, not one listened. And at the end of it the dragon lay dead, and the prince was taken home in tears."

"The king, however, had always listened to his son, and asked him what happened as he dried his tears, and didn't know what to think of a story so at odds with the picture painted by the guardsmen's tale. The very next day he ordered them to take him to the scene of the fight, to make what sense of it he could. And it was there that he had a revelation. Looking at the wolves dead on the ground, the king saw that they were skeletal, starved to desperation from being unable to hunt enough game. And he remembered the people of the kingdom telling him that the wild animals had become few and far between. And he thought, if the people and the wolves both can't find enough deer and rabbits to eat, then maybe the dragons are going hungry too."

Shiro's eyes went wide, and he straightened in his seat, remembering what Matt had told him all those weeks ago about the foxes breaking into the chicken coop and what that meant for the balance of game in the forests around a town. The conflict with dragons had been the exact same problem? They'd been unable to find enough food?

Matt must have seen the realization in his eyes, because he nodded, the corner of his lips quirking up in a small smile. "The king went home, and talked to his wife, and his advisors, and drafted up a decree. The people in the southern portions of the kingdom, closest to the mountains, would be relocated to the north, with the royal family covering all the expenses. The emptied lands would be declared off-limits, no hunting, no farming, no wood-gathering. And finally, he placed strict restrictions on the hunting of game throughout the kingdom, purchased additional animals to help repopulate the lands, and initiated a yearly census to ensure that further problems in his lands would never go unnoticed again."

"And once there was enough game, the dragons never attacked humans again." Shiro said softly. He knew that much from his history lessons, that the decree had ended the depredations of dragons, which he now saw in a whole new light.

"Exactly." Matt nodded. "No more starving dragons hunting the only food they could find. And no more grieving mates and parents taking revenge for the deaths of their partners and offspring."

Shiro smiled sadly at him across the fire. "I'm glad it wasn't too late for the dragons. There can't have been that many left by the time the decree was put into place, if there's so few now." To think that the beautiful creatures had come so close to being wiped out...

"We're not exactly sure how many there were." Matt admitted, picking up his plate again and cutting off another bite of meat. "Dad used to do the annual census himself, but he never tried to go to the mountains to see for himself how many were there. Thought it best to just leave them be. We knew there were still some because they could be seen flying over the forests occasionally, but not how many individuals. No one ever took the time to count."

"If your father didn't extend the census in the mountains, then why do you-" Shiro paused, giving the prince a long, suspicious look. "...You snuck off at the end of the normal route, didn't you?" He accused, shaking his knife at the prince. From what he'd seen so far, that was exactly the type of thing Matt would do.

Matt burst out laughing around a mouthful of food. "Guilty as charged!" He exclaimed merrily. "Man, I thought Olia was going to have a heart attack when she realized where I was headed. Spent the entire trip yelling at me."

"Can you blame her?" Shiro raised an eyebrow at him. "Taking a risk like that? You hadn't made friends with the dragons yet."

"No, of course I don't blame her. But it was something I needed to do." Matt responded easily, pausing in eating to throw a little more wood on the fire. "It wasn't just curiosity about the dragons. I felt like I owed it to the one that saved me to make sure the others were doing okay."

"And how did that go?"

"Could have been better, could have been worse." Matt shrugged. "I didn't get near any of them the first couple years. Spent that part of the trip looking at them through a spyglass and trying to learn who the different individuals were, and at first I thought it was just Black, Red, Blue, and Yellow. I didn't learn about Stone and Anvil until I took a wrong turn and blundered into Yellow's cave by mistake."

Shiro nearly choked on his food, eyes wide in horror at how that might have gone. "And he didn't fry you for that?"

Matt laughed, shaking his head. "Thankfully, no. Apparently being up front and apologizing for intruding works just as well on dragons as on humans."

"They're that intelligent?" Shiro blinked. He glanced over at Black, curled up asleep at the back of the cave. He wasn't sure what to think of the idea of dragons as intelligent beings. But then, if you'd told him just two weeks earlier that he'd be living in a dragon's cave while said dragon provided them a steady supply of meat and firewood, he would have said you were insane. What was one more blow to the world he'd thought he'd knew?

Following his gaze, Matt smiled softly. "I think so. Just because they don't do the things humans do, like building castles and using weapons, doesn't mean they're not smart in their own way. They care about each other, and they look out for those who need it." He gestured meaningfully at himself and Shiro. "If anything, I've met humans who weren't half as kind."

Well, he couldn't exactly argue with that after they'd nearly been murdered by bandits. Not to mention that Black had saved their lives. "You know, after everything that's happened in the last few weeks, I'd have to agree." He admitted, and couldn't help feeling his cheeks heat up at the way the prince's smile widened at the comment. "They're beautiful, intelligent, amazing creatures. And I'm very, very glad to have met them."

Matt's smile looked wide enough to split his head in two as he gathered up their improvised plates and set them aside to be cleaned in the morning. "I'm glad to hear that, Takashi." He said as he pushed himself carefully to his feet, leaning on the crutch with a wince. "We better rest. It's late, and the more you rest, the faster your arm will heal."

Nodding, Shiro got to his feet as well. He'd already realized that they were stuck here until he was sufficiently recovered to carry Matt while they walked. The prince couldn't go far or fast with the arrowhead lodged in his knee.

As they settled down in their bedrolls, he glanced once more at the dragon and smiled. "Goodnight, Black." He called. Manners were important, after all.

He was pleasantly surprised when one eye cracked open for a moment, regarding him steadily, and Black let out a quiet rumbling noise before her eye closed once again.

0000000

"You know, now that you know my dramatic backstory, it's only fair you tell me yours." Matt commented as he scrubbed their one cooking pot with sand in the glacial pond that sat just outside the cave.

"It's hardly very dramatic." Shiro protested. He shivered in a chilly breeze that whipped around the high spires hiding the cave from view.

Matt tossed his jacket over, having shed it while he cleaned. He'd insisted that Shiro needed some fresh air, and he may as well enjoy the view. Which Shiro couldn't deny was impressive. They were so high up that he swore he could have seen all the way to the palace if it wasn't so small at this distance. "All backstories are dramatic by definition. That's what makes them dramatic backstories."

Shiro sighed, shaking his head. "Whatever you say, Matt." He leaned back on his good hand, looking up at the sky. "There really isn't much to tell, though. My mother was a school teacher in the city outside the castle. She adopted me when I was small, and much later took in my little brother, Keith, off the streets." He smiled in fond memory. Keith had been so skittish and wary, like a feral cat, but his mother was kind and persistent and eventually won his trust.

Out of the corner of his eye, he distantly noticed Matt pausing to give him his full attention, an interested smile on his own face.

"Anyway, we were happy together, just the three of us." He continued, grinning softly at Matt's interested smile. "Might not have been the most conventional of families, but it was ours and I don't think any other mother could have been so loving and accepting." Shiro faltered and swallowed, pressing a hand to his heart as his smile faded. "I...I really miss her. Sorry." He had to stop and rub at his eyes for a moment, refusing to give into the tears that always came. "It's hard to talk about sometimes."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" Matt asked, his voice low and his gaze concerned.

Shiro shook his head and gave a small, helpless shrug. "Just an illness that she never recovered from, although the doctor did his best. I'm just glad it was peaceful. She didn't...she didn't suffer."

"Anyways." He pushed on quickly with the story, not wanting to linger on memories of a funeral, or a cemetery, or the way the house had felt so painfully empty afterwards. "It was just me and Keith after that. I applied for the guardsmen in order to support him, worked my way up through the ranks, and that was that."

Matt nodded, understanding in his eyes. "You've mentioned Keith a time or two. Want to tell me a little more?" He asked, an unspoken offer of a less painful subject.

Shiro chuckled, seizing on the topic gladly. "He's a good kid. Either loves you or hates you, there's no in between, and if he loves you I honestly think he'd go toe-to-toe with the devil himself if you asked him to. There's nothing he likes better than racing horses and seeing how fast they can go. I think he'd make a good jockey if he tried."

"Well, when we get back I'll see if I can pull some strings and get him a tryout." Matt offered, grabbing another fistful of sand to scrub with.

Looking over in surprise, Shiro broke into a wide smile. "Do that and you might just be his new favourite person."

Laughing, Matt shook his head. "I doubt that. You're his brother. No one's ever going to surpass that place with him. But I'd hate to see talent and passion go to waste. What about you?" He grinned, sitting back on one heel. "What would you do with your life, if you weren't a guardsman to take care of your brother?"

Shiro paused, frowning as he considered the question. It had honestly been a long time since he had given the topic any thought. Taking care of Keith came first.

"I think..." he said slowly "that I would still be a guardsman. I want to help people and protect them. I'm happy doing what I do."

The fact that because of it he had met Matt, and the dragons? Just icing on the cake.

Matt hummed softly, as he got up carefully. "I'm glad you're happy. The world would be a far better place if more people were able to do the things that they love. I may not have the luxury of that choice myself, as crown prince, but I can at least do my best to offer as many of my people the opportunity as possible, and follow my passions where I can until I'm king."

"For what it's worth, Matt, I think you're going to make an excellent king." Shiro told him as he got up as well, gathering up the clean pot and stone dishes. "I've seen how much you care about your people and kingdom."

"Thanks, Takashi. That means a lot to me." Matt offered him a shy smile before he turned his attention back to the ground in front of him, limping his way up the uneven slope back to the cave. As he reached the mouth of the cavern, he paused, looking back out over the distant flatlands. "God, I hope my family's okay. They must be worried sick..." He muttered, almost to himself.

"It'll be okay. We'll be on our way home soon." Shiro promised, hating the pained look in Matt's eyes. They'd both been counting the days, and were nearly three weeks overdue at the palace. Keith had to be equally afraid, and Shiro couldn't wait to get back and reassure him. "My arm's getting better by the day, thanks to your tender care. We'll be heading back before you know it."

He was relieved to see Matt turn a small, hesitant smile on him, and the pain in his eyes fade just a little. "Yeah. Not much longer now. A couple of weeks at most."

0000000

Whether that prediction would have come true, they never found out.

Three days later, Matt was just helping Shiro tuck his arm back into the makeshift sling when Black landed outside the cave in a rush of air and let out a loud bellow. The noise startled Shiro, who had never heard anything like it from any of the dragons so far. Matt, too, looked up in shock at the unexpected sound. "Black?"

The dragon wound her way quickly into the cave, wings rustling in agitation along her back, and started nudging Matt and Shiro urgently with her nose. As they struggled to their feet, Shiro had to steady the prince to keep him from being knocked down again by the repeated shoves. "Hey! Easy! We're coming! What's got your tail in a knot?" Matt demanded, bracing himself against Shiro's chest.

Black snorted, a puff of smoke coming from her nostrils, and nudged them again towards the entrance of the cave. As they stepped out into the afternoon sun, they both started looking around, trying to find out why the dragon was so agitated as she peered off into the distance.

Following the direction Black was looking with shaded eyes, Matt frowned. "Takashi. In my satchel is a spyglass. Grab it for me, would you?"

"Sure thing." Turning back towards the cave, Shiro glanced back at the trees on the horizon. What was Matt seeing that he wasn't?

As soon as Shiro returned with the spyglass, Matt quickly adjusted it, peering into the distance, then abruptly cursed. "On the horizon, just past Olkarion river. Tell me what you see." He ordered, passing over the metal tube.

Obediently, Shiro pressed the eyepiece to his face and peered into the distance. It took him a moment to locate the place he needed to be looking with the device's powerful resolution, but when he did he swore he felt ice settling into the pit of his stomach. "That's an army." He whispered, head spinning in disbelief.

Beside him, Matt nodded grimly as he gazed out towards the horizon. "Yeah. And they're marching on the palace."

"This is bad...we need to get there and warn them!" Shiro felt sick to his stomach. The army wouldn't be visible through the thick forests at the edge of the kingdom. The only reason the two of them could see it from here was the elevation, despite the immense distance. That and the army's sheer size.

"It's too far. You can't carry me yet, and even if we had horses it would take days to get there. We'd never make it in time." Matt's teeth dug into his lip as he cast around helplessly for a solution.

Dread settled heavy in Shiro's heart. Matt was right. There was no way that two humans could cover the distance in time. Nothing short of a dragon could-

He inhaled sharply, and turned to look at Black.

The great dragon was staring out into the distance, her tail lashing. The sight of the invading army obviously distressed her, whether it was because of a simple unknown activity or because she could anticipate the changes that a different ruler might make in how the kingdom was run and how the dragons were treated, he couldn't begin to guess. But he'd seen hint after hint of how brilliant the dragons were. One had saved Matt's life as a child, twice, and Black had chosen to save theirs. Maybe, just maybe...

"Black." He said, raising his voice to be heard over the wind. He stepped towards her, arm open in a gesture of appeal as she turned her blue eyes on him. "Black, could you please carry us to the palace so we can warn them in time?"

He heard Matt's sharp inhalation behind him, felt the intensity of Black's gaze. He knew exactly what a risk he was asking her to take by flying not just into human territory but to the most heavily-defended place in the kingdom. And something told him she knew it too.

For a moment, they all stood in frozen tableau. And then, to his immense relief, Black bobbed her head in a nod of assent, the sunlight glinting off her curving horns.

Shiro let out a giddy laugh, sudden hope flaring in his chest. Maybe, just maybe, they had a chance. "Thank you, Black. We'd better hurry. There's not much time."

He dashed into the cave, grabbing up Matt's satchel and his sword. Everything else was replaceable and he left it where it lay. When he emerged again, Black was crouched low in the dirt, Matt standing beside her neck and waiting.

Shiro wasted no time in helping Matt scramble up and throw his good leg over the broad, scaly neck, and with a little difficulty managed to haul himself up in front of the prince. "Hang on tight," he ordered, not giving himself time to consider the insanity of what they were about to do as he took a firm grip on the curved neck ridges in front of him. He took a deep breath, feeling Matt's arms winding tightly around his waist. "Ready, Black."

The dragon straightened, sending the air out of Shiro's lungs in a whoosh at the sudden change of elevation. Looking down from above her shoulders, he suddenly realized just how high up they were. Before he had a chance to reconsider the advisability of what they were doing, Black launched herself into the air.

She powered upwards easily, clearing the spires in a few beats of her enormous wings, before diving in a burst of speed that took Shiro's breath away and ripped away Matt's cry of alarm before Shiro could even hear it. Looking down, he could see the mountains speeding past below them. Black was flying full out, her powerful wings cleaving the air in great strokes. As they levelled out, the terrain below started to shift from stone to forest as they covered in minutes what had taken hours on horseback.

A wild laugh bubbled out of Shiro's chest. This was amazing! No matter what happened from here on out, this was definitely going to be something he would remember for the rest of his life. Even as he thought it, though, he sobered with the remembrance of why they were here. Black was fast, but the kingdom was big. It was going to be a race against time to cross it before the army reached the town surrounding the castle's walls. He leaned down to Black's neck like a jockey on a racing horse, trying to offer whatever additional speed he could. And as if the dragon heard him, he swore her wings beat even faster.

The sun and the towns and roads far below marked their passage of time, the former relentlessly lowering toward the edge of the horizon. Periodically Matt checked on the distant army's progress with his spyglass. And while the wind rushing past made conversation impossible as they flew, the tension in his body and the way the prince's hand tightened on Shiro's shirt spoke volumes on their own.

The sky was orange and bloody red with sunset as the palace became visible to the naked eye, the surrounding town filling in the space below them, and Shiro had a belated realization. "Where are we going to set down?" he shouted over his shoulder. None of the town squares were nearly large enough for the dragon, judging by the huge shadow she cast over the landscape that was making distant faces turn upwards far below.

Matt bit his lip, studying the land below. "Palace courtyard!" He shouted back. "I'll keep her safe!"

Shiro had no doubt he would. Black would not go the way of the long-dead Silver. He urged her towards the palace with a nudge of his hand.

They came in so low over the battlements that he could hear the alarmed shouts of the guards on the walls and the screams of servants as they scattered for shelter. Black ignored them totally, concentrating on flaring her wings to land in the wide courtyard, kicking up clouds of dust as she settled to the ground. Shiro could see people pressed to the walls or hiding in alcoves, and horses bucked and reared at the dragon's presence.

An eerie silence fell in the wake of her landing, every eye turned and every body frozen in shock.

Then it was broken, by Matt bellowing in the most commanding voice Shiro had ever heard. "Sound the alarms and prepare for battle! There's an army coming from the west! They'll be here any minute!"

His shouts spurred people into action. Guards shouted and ran for the barracks and armory, while others sprinted this way and that to spread the word. As the bells started to clang overhead in the tower, sounding an alert that echoed out over the town below, Shiro slid down off Black's neck and turned to assist Matt's descent, catching him as he stumbled on landing and winced. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." Matt dismissed his concern, turning slightly in Shiro's arms to bellow more orders to the men and women hauling cannons and other heavy weapons out of the storage rooms under the walls.

Up above them on the battlements, a cry went up. "I see them! They're nearly to the edge of the city!" Someone shouted voice heavy with dread.

Matt cursed, looking around at the chaos in the palace courtyard. Townspeople were streaming through the main gate, retreating into the safety of the castle's thick stone walls, and the soldiers were struggling to get organized for the battle to come. "It's too soon. There's not enough time." He said softly, his face set in a grimace of despair. There were simply too many men to be armed and too many weapons to be prepared.

Shiro hesitated, looking up at Black. The dragon looked around, then back down at them and nodded. Shiro nodded in return, their minds already in silent accord, and flashed Matt a grim smile. "Then let us go buy you some time." He said, turning towards Black once again.

He heard a startled exclamation behind him, then a tug at his arm halted him momentarily. "Wait! Takashi!"

Looking back, he saw Matt gazing at him with some expression he couldn't identify. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved. Then, suddenly, he felt soft lips on his.

Shiro's brain stuttered, and he kissed back without thinking for the scant seconds the kiss lasted. Then Matt was pulling back to stare at him with worry in his amber eyes. "You better come back to me." He said quietly.

Shiro's heart did a somersault in his chest, hope and joy and disbelief. "I will." He breathed. "I promise."

Then Matt was stepping back and Black was stepping closer, and Shiro hauled himself up onto her neck despite the stabbing pain in his injured arm. He saw Matt raise an arm in salute and then Black was springing into the air with a mighty stroke of her wings.

The sun had set during the brief time they'd spent on the ground, and the sky overhead was black as pitch, the stars washed out by the lights of countless torches down below. Soldiers were marching through the empty streets, horses pulling siege engines and catapults on sturdy wagons. The forces stretched as far as the eye could see in the darkness, and the castle rising high above the middle of the city suddenly seemed very small and fragile.

Swallowing hard, Shiro leaned down against Black's neck as they circled, taking in the ominous sight. "Alright, Black." He whispered. "Let's see what we can do to make a difference tonight."

Black growled, her eyes flashing in the torchlight, then dove. The enemy soldiers had failed to notice her high overhead, too intent on the objective in front of them, and her sudden appearance mere feet above the heads of the cavalry threw the regiment in that street into chaos. The chaos increased in pitch to panic as flames poured from Black's mouth like a waterfall, setting alight clothes, wagons, harness, and houses. Enemy soldiers ran this way and that, trying to escape the inferno any way they could.

Shiro and Black had no time to revel in their success, however. Soldiers were moving down half a dozen parallel streets, and Shiro could hear from their shouting that the element of surprise was gone. They made another low-level pass, focusing their efforts on the siege engines and cannons and setting them ablaze. There would be that much less heavy weaponry available to breach the walls of the castle.

On their third pass Black was forced to pull up sharply as bowstrings twanged in chorus. Shiro hissed as one sliced the edge of his leg, and Black let out a harsh sound of pain as her vulnerable underside took the brunt of the attack.

They held back and circled for a moment, reassessing the situation. There were still far too many soldiers below, steadily advancing. "Are you able to keep going?" Shiro asked over the wind. He wouldn't force her. She had every right to refuse after everything humans had done to her kind.

Black growled in response. She had chosen this, and she would see it through.

They dove again and again, setting fires amongst the troops and houses, trying to box them in with flames and drive them back away from their goal. Arrows pelted them whenever they came within reach, and Shiro could feel bright spots of pain in half a dozen places through the numbness of adrenaline. He could only guess what kind of shape Black was in. But still they flew.

Too focused on the threats below, neither was prepared as, while circling for their next attack, they were suddenly thrown violently sideways, Black screaming in pain. As she struggled to right herself, Shiro glimpsed another catapult launching its payload towards them. "Go right!" He cried.

Black needed no urging, banking so steeply that for a moment Shiro felt gravity trying to rip him from her neck. The projectile soared past them so close that they were buffeted by the wind of its passage before Black was able to straighten out, her wings straining from the violent maneuver.

"One last pass." He pleaded, even as he felt her shuddering in pain from the earlier blow. "We've got to take out those catapults or they won't stand a chance." Keith, Pidge, the king and queen. Matt. Everyone would die.

Black circled slowly, her right wing faltering. He felt her mighty lungs heaving behind his legs, sucking in a harsh, painful breath.

Then she gathered herself and dove.

Fire bathed the catapults in a crimson glow, and soldiers scattered, screaming and shouting and some of them with their clothes aflame. Black pulled out of her pass and circled upwards, giving Shiro a chance to see that every single catapult was burning, flames licking up the wooden structures with ferocious hunger and malevolent light.

It was a fatal mistake.

One of the catapults was already loaded and wound back, standing ready to be fired. In a matter of seconds flames ate through the main release rope, sending the arm snapping upwards and the heavy projectile hurtling through the air.

So close to the launching point, there was no time to dodge.

Shiro heard a sickening crunch and an agonized scream. Felt white-hot pain and Black tumbling underneath him. Then gravity was pulling at them both, sending them plunging toward the ground.

As they fell, the last thing Shiro saw through the haze of pain was projectiles raining down on the disarrayed army, launched from the castle's own defenses finally brought to bear, and the invaders finally turning to flee. Thank the gods, he thought. Matt would be okay.

Then everything went black.

0000000

The first thing he became aware of was the sun, blinding bright through closed eyelids.

Groaning, he shifted his head away from the light, and noticed the softness of a pillow pressing against his cheek. That didn't make sense, he thought. He hadn't slept on a pillow in months.

Shiro's eyes fluttered open.

He was in a room with grey stone walls, hung with tapestries and banners bearing the crest of the royal family. Under him was the biggest bed he'd ever seen, and a thick quilt covered him from the neck down. Beyond the window he could see part of the battlements, a guardsman patrolling and looking totally at ease.

Confused and disoriented, Shiro tried to push himself up into a sitting position. His right arm wouldn't respond, but he managed with his left alone. As the blanket fell away, he realized the reason for the lack of use. His right arm was gone just below the shoulder, the remainder heavily wrapped in bandages that criss-crossed his torso to hold them in place.

For a moment Shiro stared blankly at the injury, trying to put together the scattered pieces of his memory. His arm had been healing, hadn't it? Even if it hadn't fully by the time...

The army. The flight. The battle. The fall.

His breath came in a sharp gasp as the pieces came back together, fuzzy and full of holes but still containing more than enough to let him recall the sequence of events. The catapult had gone off and knocked them out of the sky in the middle of the chaos. What had happened? Was Matt alright?

Despite the protests of his injuries he forced himself to his feet, swaying for a moment until he managed to adjust his balance enough to take the chance of walking. A moment's rummaging in a wardrobe across the room produced pants that fit decently well, and a loose shirt that he managed to wriggle his way into one-handed, biting his lip against the pain induced by the movements. The empty sleeve hung awkwardly, but there was nothing he could do about that.

A quick check of the hallway showed no one in the vicinity, so he simply slipped out of the room and padded his way barefoot down the hall, his hand on the wall to shore up still-uncertain balance. This was definitely the palace, he realized, although a part of it he'd never been in before. Which was why he didn't realize he'd come to the courtyard exit until he'd already stepped through it.

To his surprise, the center of the courtyard was taken up with a huge, familiar form. Black was stretched out on her belly, one wing supported by a great framework of wood and metal that seemed to be holding the entire limb in position, and Shiro could see dozens of places on her sides and legs that showed patches of gauze and resin protecting various smaller injuries. And standing beside her, examining a wound on one cheek, was an equally familiar form with messy orange hair, a crutch braced under one arm.

"Matt!" The name burst out of him before he could even think, his heart feeling as though it was about to burst from relief.

The prince whipped around, his face breaking into a radiant smile. "Takashi!" He cried, dropping what he was doing and racing across the courtyard as fast as his injured leg would allow, while Black let out an amused snort and settled her head onto her paws.

Shiro stumbled as Matt all but threw himself against him, back hitting the wall, and promptly forgot about that and everything else as Matt's lips crushed against his. His arm automatically wound around the other man's waist, holding him close, and he kissed back with equal passion, relieved beyond measure to feel the other strong and warm against him.

When they finally broke apart, breathing hard, Matt reached up to cup Shiro's cheeks with both hands, looking him over with worried eyes. "I'm so glad you're awake. I've been worried sick."

"Sorry for scaring you." Shiro smiled apologetically, letting go of Matt's waist so he could curl his hand around one of the ones holding his cheek and turning his head to kiss the palm.

Matt's cheeks reddened and he scowled, although his hand wound tighter around Shiro's in return. "You better be." He grumbled. "I told you I didn't want anyone else dying for me."

The pain in his expression spoke volumes and made Shiro's heart ache in his chest, and he quickly leaned down to kiss Matt once again, soft and chaste and full of reassurance. "But I didn't. I promised you I would come back, remember?"

The blush deepened, but the words rewarded him with a shy smile, so very different from Matt's usual broad grins but no less effective at making Shiro's heart skip a beat. "Does that mean you return my feelings? I realize I didn't exactly ask..."

Shiro burst out laughing, but quickly tugged Matt closer when the prince started to frown at his reaction. "Matt, I spent more than half the trip yelling at myself for falling for the most unattainable man in the kingdom." He explained, trying and failing to suppress a self-deprecating grin. "I didn't even realize you liked me too."

Matt blinked, his frown falling away, and then he laughed as well, the tension going out of his shoulders. "Well, I spent most of the trip worrying about the guy I was falling way too hard for trying to attack the dragons. So I think we're even on that score."

"Speaking of dragons, will Black be alright?" Shiro asked, his smile fading as he looked over at her. There were so many bandages, and the framework supporting her wing...

Matt smiled and squeezed his hand. "Don't worry. She'll be fine." He said confidently. "She has all the best doctors in the kingdom tending to her injuries. She'll heal, and she will fly again."

"Really? Doctors working on a dragon?" Shiro raised an eyebrow in surprise, seeing the extensive bandaging in a brand new light. "Not that I'm not happy to hear it, but why the change of heart?"

"Because she saved our lives." Matt told him, turning to face Shiro again, a smile curving his lips. "The two of you single-handedly threw their army into disarray. By the time we managed to get the catapults up and firing, well...there wasn't much left to do. You and Black are the heroes of the kingdom, Takashi."

Shiro gaped at him, momentarily stunned. "I...I wasn't trying to be...I just wanted to keep people safe. Keep you safe."

Matt laughed softly, and wrapped his arms carefully around Shiro's neck, tugging him down slightly. "I know. Glory was the last thing on any of our minds. But it does come with some fringe benefits."

"Such as?"

"Such as no one saying anything against it if I asked your permission to court you. Not that I'd care if they did." Matt grinned broadly, practically radiating delight. "But this should take care of most of the opposition."

"But..." Shiro hesitated, glancing down at the empty sleeve of his shirt. "What about this?" He gestured to it unhappily. "I won't even be able to be a guardsman anymore. I don't have any other useful skills. What can I even-"

Matt sighed, gazing at him with a slightly unhappy frown. "Takashi, stop. I love you for who you are, not what you can do." He said firmly, as if he hadn't just stunned Shiro into silence with his choice of words. Then his lips quirked again. "But if you're that worried about it...I don't think you need two arms to be the royal dragon liaison."

Shiro stared at him for a moment, then let out a sheepish laugh and pressed their foreheads together. "You have an answer for everything, don't you?" He commented, giving the prince an admiring look.

"It's one of my many talents." Matt preened playfully.

Shiro shook his head, but he could feel a broad smile stretching across his own face, worries melted away in the face of Matt's utter confidence. "And one of the reasons I love you." He admitted, feeling his cheeks burn at the way Matt's smile widened and his eyes sparkled in delight. "Alright. Yes. I'll be the royal dragon liaison. And it would be my pleasure to be courted by you."

"Then it's settled." Matt beamed, and Shiro could hear the joy in his voice. "Now come on, let's get you back to bed. As soon as you've fully recovered, we've got the whole future ahead of us. You, me, and the dragons."