The Prince and The Dragon

Written By: Panda-ko!

A/N: Hi, just saying I'm ALIVE! Gosh. Yes. I know I have tons of fics to update on, but this – this – thing wouldn't leave me alone! Don't kill me, and review! (PLEASE)

-0-0-0-0-

"I'm bored, da, Toris. . . ."

A silver-haired prince turned to look at the trembling boy behind him.

"Um, did you already look at your mail, young master?"

Ivan sighed and turned back to his window.

"I did. Only Natalia's love letters."

Toris blushed a bit and mumbled something about her beauty before screaming and running off.
Ivan shrugged, not in the mood to terrorize him.
He was the slightly (read: very) spoiled son of an indulgent father who'd passed when he was younger.
His mother and older sister now ruled the kingdom.
Ivan sighed again and sat down on the windowsill, picking his favorite book up from his bed.
It was about all the mythical creatures that lived around the snowy realm and beyond, and he'd been very interested in them since he'd first read said book.
Even though he was finished with it, he didn't mind reading it again.
He was soon lost in the adventures of what his mother called 'fantasy and rubbish.'

-0-0-0-0-

Yao lifted his head, blinking, and flicked his scaly tail.
He'd been chased by a tiny group of dragon hunters for the past three days, and was regretting the bad decision he'd made back in Zhōngguó.
It had led to financial problems, and then he was turned into a dragon by that idiot Westerner who brought a strange drug from another world.
Oh well, he might as well try to survive, right?

"Kese, Francis, move your ass! The stupid D's gonna get away if you – oh, dang!"

Yao snorted and slithered away into the bamboo again.
The men chasing him cried loudly to each other in English, the language the fair-haired idiot spoke.
He could understand a bit, and what they said made him want to murder them all.

"Prince Ivan – wants dragon – by tomorrow – or we die."

Yao snorted again.

Let them die aru! Not like I care. And that 'prince', whoever he is, will probably just cut off my head and cover it in gold like all those other idiots out there aru! Agh, I'm running! Running!

He hadn't gone far when he heard a click above him, and the next thing he knew he was tangled up in a prism-flower net.
The gold and green dragon trilled in annoyance.
If only he'd been watching.

-0-0-0-0-

"You caught one, da?"

Ivan giggled delightedly and followed the three hunters – one with white hair, another with brown, and the last with blond – into a large room with cages of all shapes and sizes.
He, like Katyusha had cried about earlier in the day, was obsessed most by the stories of dragons in his book, and had sent the Bad Touch Trio out to get him one.
They were a small – tiny, actually – group of dragon hunters who'd captured more than a hundred in their rather short lives.
The albino hunter's laugh brought him back to the present.

"Kesesesese! Of course we caught one! But mostly it was me, ja!"

The blond, blue eyed hunter sighed in annoyance and shook his head.

"Don't listen to him, cher, it was the net that caught him."
"But we – mostly me - scared 'im into the net!"
"Fusososo~, don't argue! I don't really care who did it unless I get to see my Tomatina again, so shush."

Ivan huffed in annoyance and folded his arms.

"Can we just go ahead and see the dragon, da? I can't pay you until I get to see it."
"Fine, fine, she's right here."

Gilbert, the albino hunter, led them to a covered cage big enough to fit a medium sized dragon.

"Gilbert, I think it's a boy."
"Shut up, Antonio."

Antonio just giggled and stood back, watching the other three.

"Well, Francis, would you. . . ?"

Gilbert looked expectantly at the blond, then back at the cover.
Francis nodded and whisked the cover off, grinning.
Ivan giggled again and clapped his hands.
In the cage, Yao glared at them like the tsundere he was.

"It's really a dragon, da! I knew they existed! Oh, you can leave, by the way. Eduard will be waiting at the door with your money."

Gilbert grumbled something about having to walk all the way to the door just for his money, but Francis and Antonio dragged him along.
Once he was alone with Yao, Ivan plopped down on the floor in front of him, grinning widely.

"Hey, mister dragon, do you hate me for capturing you? Or hiring them to capture you, but that's the same. . . . Actually, are you mad?"

The dragon just trilled and turned its back on Ivan, causing him to pout.

"Mister dragon, no one turns their back to me, da!"

He hopped to the other side of the cage to face Yao, but he showed his fangs.

"You are mad, after all. Hm. Dragons are rather tiring. . . . I'll be back later."

The prince hopped up again and left for the library, where he was going to terrorize the poor, polite librarian into answering his questions.

-0-0-0-0-

Yao glared at the silver-haired prince's back as he left, trilling lowly to himself.

Aiya if only I hadn't gotten caught aru!
Then maybe I would've been able to get to that king's palace aru, and live as a human forever more. . . .
But I guess that's not meant to be aru.
Curse those hunters!
Once night comes, I'll – I'll – I don't know aru. . . .
Cu~rse them!
Aru!

He snorted in annoyance and turned again in the cage.
It was hard, being a dragon and all.
People believed they killed people and ate their hearts.
But that wasn't true.
At least not for Yao.
The thought of killing a person and eating the heart was absolutely disgusting.
Aru.
He sighed – if a dragon could sigh – and tried to make himself comfortable.
The only thing he could do now was wait until night came.
With a prism-flower cage, there was nothing he could do.

-0-0-0-0-

"Kiku? Kiku~, are you there?"

Ivan peeked around a bookshelf at the little, black haired librarian, who was deep into one of the books from his own country.
He thought they called them something like 'manga'.
Kiku looked up and put away his book.

"Hai, Ivan-dono?"

Ivan squatted beside him and leaned over to take a look at Kiku's book.

"Well. . . . The Bad Touch Trio – I think – just got the dragon I told you about. But he's moody, it seems, da!"
"And. . . ?"

Kiku nodded slowly, leaning on the bookshelf in a failed attempt to get the prince to move away from him a little.

"He looks like a Nihongo dragon, da! What do they eat?"

Kiku looked thoughtful for a minute.

"Ano. . . . I'm not sure. But in some tares they eat people."

Ivan frowned, and Kiku seriously considered running away.
But then the prince smiled again.

"Oh, people, da? We could feed him the criminals that Mama has sent to Death Row~."
"Th-that's cruer. . . . Even dragons aren't that cruer. . . ."

Ivan giggled at his accent and shrugged.

"Well, then what'll we feed him? And why do you think he's being moody?"

Kiku frowned slightly, thoughtfully, and shrugged also.

"Werr, it courd be that he's just a moody dragon. But you courd try to feed him pickres and fish."

Ivan nodded and stood up.

"Well, thanks, I guess. . . . I'll go and see him now. Again."

Kiku nodded.

"Good ruck, Ivan-dono."

-0-0-0-0-

Yao thought this was the most terrible evening of his life.
The sun just wouldn't set fast enough!
Ivan had just left him for the second time, and he was near starving.
Well, the prince had promised to bring him food later, after his own dinner, so Yao was looking forward to that.

I curse that foreign idiot.

Yao thought bitterly.
The 'foreign idiot' he was speaking of was the magician-slash-king, Arthur Kirkland.
He ruled England, another country several days – or even weeks – travel away from Rossiya, the country he was in now.
Yao's thoughts were interrupted when his stomach growled loudly.
Oh well.
So much for forgetting how hungry he was.

-0-0-0-0-

A/N: Hi~! 3 How is everyone~? If you made it here means you're not bored out of your mind yet.
This is the end of this chapter.
I'll be updating real soon, once I get confirmation about Something Interesting.
Well. Now, your duty is to review, and tell me if I kept everyone in-character.
OOC is my pet-peeve.