crossposted from archive of our own, where i am under the same name!
received as a prompt on tumblr; the exact wording is thus.
usuk with "my dragon/dragon-shifter lover is sick and keeps sneezing so I'm sitting next to them with a fire extinguisher" au pleassssseeee?
explanations after the fic!
"Put the video in the player," Arthur said, fiddling with the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. "No, you can just press play if you'd like."
"Aw, all right, Artie," Alfred sniffed forlornly, his claw like hands reaching for the black plastic of the remote. "J-just thought you'd do it for me since I'm in this mess."
"You've…shifted into your form, that's it," Arthur said, raising a thick eyebrow at his massive lover slash dragon on the sofa. "Nothing more than that. Well, except for the fact that you have a cold. I suppose congratulations are in order."
Even though Alfred had told him he was born this way, coupled with a small song and dance that made him cringe and laugh at the same time, Arthur couldn't have possibly anticipated that their lazy evening tonight would have been spent trying to extinguish his sneezes.
"So mean," Alfred groaned, his tail swishing in a swift movement that disturbed the carpet and thus Tony, their little silver Maine Coon. It let out a little hiss before scurrying underneath the coffee table on Arthur's side. "I feel like I'm never gonna breathe out my left nostril again…"
"Dramatic, darling," Arthur remarked dryly as he propped the pillow underneath the fire extinguisher and tucked his legs against his arms. "You're just having a cold."
"I almost singed the microwave! And I was gonna take you out tonight," Alfred said miserably, parting his much larger jaws, taking one glance at the ceiling at the sprinkler before burrowing into the couch. "Hell, I was even was going to pick up a bit of Thai."
"Alfred, last time we went on a date, you singed the table even after you shifted back into your human form," Arthur sighed, tapping two fingers on the hard scales that adorned his neck. "I don't want you to be a walking fire hazard."
Alfred stuck out his bottom lip in response, his large blue eyes blinking as he pulled his best puppy dog face. "Aww, but sugar, I'm hungry…"
"C-Come off it, idiot!" Arthur said, his voice and the flush on his cheeks betraying his embarrassment. "All right, all right - I'll see about going out a bit later."
"But I really like your soup," Alfred continued, nuzzling his vast head in a gentle manner that he was sure wouldn't hurt Arthur. "You know, the chicken one for the soul?"
"Ah…hmph," Arthur grumbled, but the fact that he didn't shy away from Alfred's touch spoke told him more than his partner's words did. "I'll - I'll see what I can do. I possibly might have a can back in the pantry - if you haven't guzzled it down already as you always do."
The moment Arthur left the room, Alfred gingerly tapped the PLAY button on his remote, letting the music of the film wash over the homely living room.
"Alfred - did you really choose WALL-E?!"
Turns out, he had.
The senile sounds of WALL-E and EVE twittering away did Arthur's head in, and he was aggressively complaining to himself as he came into the room with a bowl of said chicken soup, a small sprig of mint stuck to it - but paused as Alfred clutched a towel to his face.
"Alfred - they're robots, they're not real," Arthur said, his footsteps quickening as he sought to comfort him. "Look, turn off the bloody movie if it's upsetting you so much-"
Suddenly, Alfred let out an almighty sneeze, blowing the bowl and some added heat back into Arthur's unamused face. After he had sniffled his way back to normality, he looked at Arthur's sallow face, drenched with the soup and the mint sprig cottoned onto his hair.
"…babe! I'm so sorry!" Alfred wailed, picking up the fire extinguisher in a frenzy. "Nothing's on fire, I promise-"
Arthur simply shot him a look that would have turned the most vibrant gourd into a shrivelled vegetable and stomped to the kitchen, muttering a faint mantra of 'this is fine'.
The living room was peaceful for a grand total of two seconds before Tony jumped onto his lap, sniffed the soup then began scratching his claws against Alfred's scales on his knee
"OWW! TONY!" Alfred yelped, brandishing his fire extinguisher, complete with menacing stars and stripes stickers plastered onto it. "W-What did I ever do to you, buddy? A-A-ACHOO-"
Tony bared his tiny fangs before springing off the couch, neatly dodging Alfred's fiery sneeze and trotted away in Arthur's direction - probably sensing that he was sprayed with chicken soup that was no longer intended for the soul.
"I hate this stupid cat," Arthur muttered under his breath, placing the creature in the sink and pulling the shower curtains shut.
Unfortunately, the damage was a little more than a slightly warm drenching, as Arthur found out to his horror - one of his signature thick eyebrows had been singed with the heat produced by his dragon shifting lover. He picked at it worriedly, but when it showed no sign of improving.
Also, there was the issue of-
"Honey, I dunno how to work this fire extinguisher thingy, and I don't wanna set anything on fire!" Alfred's wails came from the living room once more, not unlike a five year old's in Arthur's weary mind. "I-I paused the video, if you'd still like to watch it? The cute part's coming up, I promise…"
"I am not talking about the events of the past thirty minutes," Arthur deadpanned the moment he walked back into the vision of his sweetheart and dryly noted how his jaw swung open in horror. "Just - for the love of God and what little good is left in this evening, can it. I'll watch the bloody film with you."
Alfred made a half chortling, half dragon noise and Arthur's eyes softened for a moment as he wearily helped himself to the couch and rested his head against Alfred's scales protruding from his shoulder - at least he hadn't shifted fully and only some aspects of his dragon form rested on his skin.
"…I thought you were gonna give me a kiss," Alfred pouted, and Arthur blushed immediately, turning away almost instantly. "H-Hey, you were acting all cute an' achoo-"
Still turning away, Arthur gave his lover's face a little spray to ward off the heat, and tucked the fire extinguisher in between his legs, watching the little robots wander around the spaceship on television.
"The sides of your face are covered with scales," Arthur sighed, but after a moment reached up to nestle his head against Alfred's neck. "Still, love. I hope you know what I'm doing is for your sake, not the house's."
"Awww," Alfred cooed, and Arthur could feel him relax a little. "They're doing the little thing with the space extinguisher! They're floating around in space! Aww, it's super romantic - hey Artie, Artie, we should do that since you mentioned that the house doesn't m-"
"You know what I mean…!" Arthur huffed, but didn't fight the smile that crept to his face. "They're robots…but I won't say they're not sweet."
The two of them sat and enjoyed the film, the night completely silent save for loud sneezes, little spurts of a stars and stripes extinguisher and Alfred's louder than usual breathing as the two of them enjoyed each other's company.
He was still Alfred, and Arthur knew his heart would never change, scales or no scales.
so alfred was born with the ability to dragon shift/half shift/not shift at all but still retain dragon tendencies - i tried to make it as obvious as i could throughout the oneshot!
the word manakete comes from the class of the same name from the Fire Emblem games. i'm a huge fan of the series and i was searching for another adjective to describe dragons, so chance made it so! they are a shapeshifting class in the games that turn into dragons during combat. all right, i'll stop being a nerd now...