A/N The first chunk of this was inspired by the story KIttyclaw is still working on. But I just had to put it in. read and review please!
How to Reconcile Your Feelings.
Odd scratched under Kiwi's wing. The little dragon shanking its body happily and dragging its claws over one of Ulrich's shirts. It growled and yipped. Tail lashing unhappily.
"Whats wrong Kiwi?" his pet never acted like this. Worried, he gave the dragon a treat and was surprised when it ignored the treat to claw at the door. Someone knocked, and Kiwi growled louder.
"No no no!" he grabbed Kiwi and dragged him away from the door. Clamping his hand over the dragon's muzzle. "We have to be quiet. People don't take kindly to dragons. Shhh."
Whoever was on the other side of the door knocked harder, actually rattling it in its frame a little.
"I'm coming. Hold on a moment!"
Odd grunted as he lifted Kiwi off the floor, and dropped him in his drawer. "You're going on a diet." The dragon snorted out a puff of smoke, catching odd in the face as he slid the drawer closed.
He darted to the door an opened it, finding Yumi, the girl his weird roommate liked standing there clutching at her forearm.
She smiled sheepishly at him. "Can I come in? is Ulrich here?"
"Uhm, sure? No, I haven't seen him."
Yumi stepped in. "what was that yipping?"
Odd shifted uncomfortably. "Nothing? What yipping?" Kiwi's drawer popped open and the tiny dragon huffed smoke and shook its head trying to make sense of what had happened. Odd blushed a deep red.
Yumi shot him a look. "Really?"
Odd tried to slip between her and Kiwi, protesting that he could explain, but she pushed past him and crouched down to look more closely at Kiwi.
"He's so cute! What is he?" she reached down to scratch under his chin, but the dragon backed away and bared its fangs at her, hissing.
"Um, he's a dragon?"
Kiwi snapped at her hand and she pulled it back and gave Odd a look that told him she was seriously about to start question his intelligence. "That's obvious; do you take me for some kind of fool?
Odd had no idea how to take this. Shouldn't she be scarred and freaking out right now? It wasn't like everyone saw dragons every day. Or even at all really.
"He's a New Zealand Rock Dragon."
Yumi cooed and tried to scratch its wing, but was met again with teeth and hissing. She caught sight of the tag around its neck. "You named him Kiwi?"
"Yeah, he loves them! They're his favorite food."
"The bird or the fruit?"
Odd nodded his head vigorously. He scooped the dragon up and offered it to Yumi, who reached out to take it but was deterred by Kiwi swiping at her with a clawed foot, nearly catching her hand.
"Sorry!" Odd shushed the still growling dragon and hugged it close. "He's never like this. Usually he's the very picture of well behaved."
Yumi eyed the shredded shirt on the floor skeptically. At least the dragon is relatively smart. She thought, if it was willing to fend her off from its owner. Most dragons were indifferent to vampires. They never really competed for food or land.
She shrugged. "Clearly he thinks I'm a threat."
"Well I have no idea why he would. You're not dangerous." He started scratching under the dragons chin. "No, she's not dangerous at all, is she." He cooed at it like it was a baby, and the dragon snorted out more smoke at her. Yumi shook her head.
"Do you know where Ulrich is?"
Something red caught her eye on what was obviously Ulrich's side of the room. She reached past Odd and found that he had stuck her glove in his bedside table. She snatched it away and smoothed the material out.
"Oh, is that yours? He had it with him yesterday. Wouldn't say where he got it or anything. Did you guys have a fight?"
"I don't want to talk about it." She pulled back the sleeve of her shirt and slipped the glove back on, only to have Odd grab her hand and pull her arm towards him, dropping Kiwi as he did so.
"Hey! Let go of me!" she cried, pulling her other hand back and making a fist with it, not wanting to hit him but willing to if it came to that.
He was staring at the burns on her hand and forearm. "What the heck happened to you? Oh my god! Yumi, you have to get someone to look at this!" She yanked her hand from his grip, hissing a little as she stretched her damaged skin further.
"No I don't, It's not a big deal." She pulled her glove on, gritting her teeth at the feel of the velveteen being pulled tight against the burns. She was going to be dealing with that for at least another week, probably two.
"Well, at least now I know why Kiwi doesn't like you. You're really weird."
"Yeah, okay. I'll give you that. Where's Ulrich?"
"I'm pretty sure he's in the Gym? Sissi was here earlier, I think that's where they were heading."
Yumi scowled, and could feel her fangs digging into her gums, threatening to come out. "Thanks."
Before Odd could even say anything else, she had darted out of the room and down the hall.
"She really is strange, isn't she Kiwi?" the dragon yawned and snuggled into Ulrich's pillow, releasing another puff of smoke.
Ulrich was standing in the middle of the gym, practicing his martial arts. Sissi was sitting on a bench, fiddling idly with her phone, but still watching him move. The peace of being the only people in the gym was violently disturbed by the door slamming open and then closed again.
"Ulrich!"
Both he and Sissi cringed at the anger in Yumi's voice.
"Hi Yumi." Sissi was the first to speak, deciding that there was really only one way to sort this all out once and for all. "Ulrich was kind enough to let me watch him while he was practicing. Did you know he's been doing this since he was a little kid?"
Yumi completely disregarded Sissi, and instead approached Ulrich on the training mat. "What are you doing here, with her?" She pointed at Sissi, and glared at Ulrich at the same time.
"I'm here because I take an interest in what Ulrich enjoys doing. Unlike you, who just expect him to be around when you want him."
Yumi was taken aback. How dare this petty temptress try to tell her what her flaws were. "Get out of here." She snapped, and Sissi stood to leave, tossing her hair over her shoulder and shooting Yumi a look that would have killed were that actually possible.
"Ulrich, remember what we talked about. I'll be waiting to hear about it." She waved to him in a manner that only made Yumi angrier.
As soon as the door was closed Yumi took a step back from him. "What were you talking about that is so important?"
He met her gaze. "You try to control everything I do. You want to keep tabs on me, but you only ever want me around when it suits you. We were talking about your attitude."
"My attitude? Are you kidding me? You've spent entire weeks moping about in your room, just because I was busy or had other plans. If you recall, you managed to get enthralled by a two bit wanna-be temptress."
"Yeah, and I was grateful and I thanked you for that. But you know what, she's a normal person, or at least close enough. I don't have to worry about accidentally pissing her off just because I was trying to diffuse the tension of you drinking my blood. Do you have any idea how much that hurt?"
She poked him in the chest, hard enough to push him onto his back foot. "I told you that was a bad idea! You're the one that wanted to do it!" she ripped the glove off her burned hand and rolled her sleeve back. He tried his best not to look at her skin, it was really disgusting.
"Yeah, that's real pretty isn't it?" she waved it in his face. "I have you to thank for this, so I guess we're even on that one. Do you have any idea how much this hurts? Ulrich this is a second degree burn! People spend time in the hospital for these things."
He hung his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't want that to happen to you, I never want to see you hurt."
Yumi stopped poking him in the chest for a moment. "Really?"
He nodded. "I know it's hard for you to believe, but Sissi helped me figure out how I feel."
Yumi suddenly felt small. All she knew of Sissi was her trying to seduce Ulrich. "She really did that?"
"Yeah."
Yumi swallowed. Now she felt like a horrible person. "So, um, well? Did you want to maybe sit down so we could have that talk then?"
"Do you think you can handle that?" There was a hard edge to his voice.
She bared her fangs at him. He took a half step back, involuntarily.
"Yumi. Put those away."
She froze. She swallowed and her fangs slid away, slowly. "Maybe we shouldn't be fighting." She suddenly sounded exhausted, and they sat down on one of the benches.
"So. Ulrich? What do we do now?"
He was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "I feel really protective of you. I like seeing you when you're happy."
She didn't really know how to respond to that. No one had expressed that kind of sentiment to her in years.
"I don't know Ulrich."
"I do." He cut her protests off by leaning and kissing her softly. She froze completely, she could hear his heart hammering in his chest, and she could smell the adrenalin in his system. The feel of his blood running just under his skin was intoxicating.
She found herself kissing him back.