The cage sat in the back of the pantry, hidden behind several boxes. It was a plain metal cage with a water bottle clipped to the side, a small food dish, and a pile of blankets for the occupant to nest. They took him out of the cage to let him use the restroom and wash, and turned on the lights when they brought him fruit to eat, but otherwise he was left to a world of cage and darkness. So it was that when the lights came on unexpectedly in the middle of the night, the creature came to front of the cage to peer curiously at the intruder, a dracarian boy.

The boy looked through the stacks of boxes and cans while trying to make as little noise as possible. He'd never hear the end of it if he was caught snooping for his gifts, but as everyone else was currently asleep, getting busted was unlikely. He'd looked just about everywhere in the house that they usually hid his presents and hadn't been able to find anything, there had to be something here.

As he moved to the back of the pantry, he knelt down and pushed aside a box and saw the top of the metal cage. He moved the rest of the boxes off the shelf, and looked down at the little creature surprised. A loritarian? They were nearly extinct, and practically priceless as a result. Even though his parents were wealthy, he had never seen one of them up close before.

It stood at about 7, maybe 8, inches tall. It's a tail just a bit more than that in length, with an alternating black and white pattern that reminded him of a checkerboard. It was a cute little thing, blond hair messily swirled and spiked in all directions, and big blue eyes. It's big ears twitched as it looked at him curiously. He wondered if he could take it out of the cage to get a better look at it, or if it would try to escape if he did. It didn't seem scared of him, strange as that was, so maybe it would be okay?

"Hi," said the creature, looking up at him. While the creature was a rarity to the boy, the loritarian had seen plenty like him before, though none quite as stunning. The dracarian's hair was a deep red, spiked up around a pair of horns and pointy webbed ears. His eyes slitted like a snake's, and shone like an emerald. There were some patches of small scales on the side of his face, though they were mostly hidden with the way he wore his hair. The creature knew the same kind of scales trailed down his back, until they reached his waist. From there everything was scales, covering the lithe reptilian legs, and the long tail that flicked behind him.

The dracarian seemed surprised when he spoke up. "Hello?" he said in return.

"My name's Roxas, what's yours?"

"The name's Axel," he said, "Got it memorized?"

Roxas nodded, "Axel," he repeated, as he looked over the much larger creature. "You're the one who's going to eat me. They said I was going to be your birthday dinner in a few weeks." The creature didn't seem particularly disturbed by this. "Are you going to eat me now, instead?" His ears dropped down, flat against his head and he wrapped his tail around himself. He still didn't seem exactly afraid, more sad than anything.

Axel tilted his head to the side, surprised Roxas still didn't seem afraid of him. He knew he was going to be eaten, that he could be gobbled up right then and there, but he wasn't acting like normal prey did. No crying, no begging, just… sad?

"No, not yet, I'd probably get in trouble if I did." Axel told him. These creatures were pretty hard to get ahold of, his parents must have pulled a lot of strings to get one and he doubted they'd appreciate him having it for a midnight snack. "You don't seem very afraid of the fact I'm going to though, why is that?"

"We don't feel afraid," said Roxas, "before you kind came to our world there was very little to be afraid of that could be avoided, more of us died from stress than danger, so we changed, engineered ourselves to not feel fear. We'd flee from a fire because it's reasonable, but we wouldn't fear it. We can still feel pain and understand death, and seek to avoid them where possible, but we do not fear. Then your people came and killed many of us, capturing what remained, because we were trusting and did not have weapons, but we still couldn't fear you because we'd lost the ability. And now we've been raised to be eaten for so long, it's just the way it is. We are born, we grow, and then we are eaten."

"Hm. Didn't know that about your kind." Axel wondered what it must have felt like, not being able to fear anything, even your own death.

"What do you know?" asked Roxas.

Axel shrugged, "Not much really. I mean, the whole deal with your people being nearly wiped out by mine I knew, just not the 'not being able to feel fear' thing." He told him, "Hope that means you won't be begging as much as what I usually eat. I hate it when they do that."

Roxas looked down, and turned his back on the other. "No one wants to die," he said, "I don't understand how you can be so cold." His voice darkened with anger. He knew lashing out might earn him a more painful death, but in absence of fear, he felt anger and sorrow keenly. Roxas sighed, looking back at Axel. "But no, I won't beg, there's no point begging. It's what I'm for afterall. My kind are delicious."

"So I've heard. Never got to try one of your kind before." Axel told him. He wanted to get a taste of the little creature, but he was sure letting him out now would probably result in biting and an escape attempt. "And okay, that was a bit cruel of me to say, but we both know how things are, and I'm not exactly the type of person to sugar coat things."

Roxas actually smiled when he said he'd never had one of his kind before. "This will be a very special occasion then. I may be one of the last. I hope you enjoy it." Roxas indeed knew how things were and he didn't blame Axel for it, not really, he just disliked cruelty. "I'll scream less if you kill me quickly," said Roxas, "I can still feel pain. Your teeth look very sharp. I would prefer not to be in pain, so if you kill me quickly it would be good for both of us. Though I guess my preferences matter less, but in the interest of it being quiet."

"My teeth are quite sharp, but you won't have to worry about them." Axel said, "I take it you're not familiar with how my kind usually eats small prey like yourself?"

He tilted his head to the side, looking at Axel, how big his mouth was, the comment about small prey. "You're going to eat me whole?"

"Whole and alive," said Axel.

"I didn't know that," said Roxas, "I've never seen anyone eaten, when my mom left us they said they'd take her to have more kids or eat her, but not to worry or miss her too much. We're all eaten eventually. Never thought about what it would be like, just hoped it would be quick. Does being swallowed alive hurt?"

He admittedly felt a little guilty when Roxas talked about his mom being taken away from him, and it was odd to hear prey talk about being eaten whole without any fear in their voice. "It won't," Axel assured him.

Roxas nodded, smiling slightly. "That's good then. Could we maybe talk about something else?"

"Sure," Though he wasn't sure what he could talk about with Roxas, he honestly couldn't believe he'd already talked with him this long.

For Roxas's part, it was simply nice not to be alone anymore. To have someone to talk to, maybe someone who could be his friend, well at least until it came time for the dracarian to eat him.