It was outrageous.
He didn't need one of those feral monsters to solidify his status, thank you very much!
How could Ludwig even think of bringing something like that up in his presence? Bad enough that he dragged that rabid beast out of the sewers or wherever he found it, now he was proposing he did the same? It was an outrage, a disgrace!
Roderich forced a calming breath, inhaling the steam of his beloved tea in the process. Now was not the time for that, he was in the middle of his weekly outdoor picnic and he wouldn't allow it to be spoiled by thoughts about those monsters. He shuddered at the thought and hastily took another sip from his tea.
Ludwig should have known better than to bring it up. It would at need at least two 'Linzer Torten' to make him feel better about this, but he couldn't even ask Ludwig to help him make them, because he was the reason for his anger. No, 'Mozartkugeln' would have to do for now, Roderich though wryly as he popped one into his mouth. He idly wondered who this 'Mozart' had been that he got his own sort of chocolate. Probably some rich Lord, who had more money than sense. Roderich would never waste money on this much self-indulgence, a proper aristocrat knew how to utilize others for their own welfare.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud rustling from behind him, it sounded like a large animal and Roderich's hand snapped to the small gun he carried in his boot shaft, not out of choice, but because Ludwig made him. A woman stepped out of the shadow of the trees, her hair was tousled and she was barefoot, but her dress was a lovely green and looked like it belonged to a noble Lady and the flower on her temple gave her a certain royal air.
She seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see her, but she overcame her shock much quicker. "Hello there." She greeted and then, without further ado, she sat down gracefully on his picnic blanket. Roderich could just stare in slight shock as she helped herself to some strawberries.
That was… uncouth?
He cleared his throat in an attempt to show her his disdain, but she wasn't deterred the least by his silent reprimand. Roderich tried again, louder this time but all that got him was confused glance and an "are you alright?"
"Yes." He said, but it was with a quite obvious wrinkling of nose.
"I'm Elizaveta by the way, you can call me Liz." She said cheerily and leaned back to look at the sky. "It's wonderful day, don't you think?" Elizaveta smiled, eyes closed against the light of the sun and Roderich noted offhandedly, that she looked exhausted under that layer of apparent happiness.
Maybe it was that realization, that made him change his next words from a snappy "I know." to "My name is Roderich." She laughed, softly and then she tested his name on her mouth and somehow that was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard.
It was strange, way beyond strange, but somehow Roderich felt content with Elizaveta's cheerful chatter as she slowly ate through his food. He didn't even mind that she ate the rest of his Mozartkugeln, because she made the most enticing pleased sound when she bit down on the first. If anything, her presence was delightful and the time seemed to fly by.
But suddenly Elizaveta's head snapped up and she dropped the piece of fruit she was holding. "I'm sorry, I have to go." She said as she jumped to her feet. "It was a pleasure meeting you Roderich." And with that she was gone.
Roderich blinked in surprise, but his confusion soon was interrupted as two Imperial guards stepped out onto the clearing. Roderich immediately sat up, back straight, as he eyed the two warily. He was a noble, they knew better than to lay hand on him, but their being out here couldn't mean anything good.
"Apologies Milord, have you seen a dragon coming by?" One of them asked and Roderich frowned. A dragon? No, he had only seen Elizaveta…
That couldn't be.
It was impossible.
"She was in human form, she's supposedly not dangerous but we can't be sure enough. Please, if you have seen anything suspicious, tell us."
Roderich could feel the blood drain from his face as the realization sunk in. The dress, the pretty green dress, was probably stolen, her feet bare and dirty and the way she had devoured almost all of his food, with manners that might be acceptable during a picnic but would be scandalous everywhere else.
It just couldn't be.
"No." The word was out before he even realized what it meant, but now that he had said it, he couldn't take it back. There was no reason for him to lie, she was a stranger, a monster, but she had been so nice and pleasant. He didn't want her to get in any trouble.
"Are you sure?" The other guard asked, but the first shot him a glance that quickly silenced him.
"Thank you and apologies again for the interruption." He said and bowed slightly. "You should probably relocate, this area will soon be swarmed with guards." And with that they left and Roderich felt a sickening feeling churning in his gut. He didn't want to believe what just happened, he didn't want to believe that Elizaveta was a dragon, who had, from the looks of it, escaped from the dragon pit. But all signs pointed to that conclusion, and not just that, he had given her food and lied to her pursuers.
There was only one thing he could do in that situation.
Roderich poured himself another cup of tea.
He should have forgotten about the incident and move on with his life, but Roderich found it hard to forget Elizaveta's warm smile that made her eyes sparkle. So he carefully poked questions at Ludwig until he got the information he wanted. It was no surprise, but Elizaveta had been recaptured and brought back to the breeding den deep inside the dungeons.
Something twisted inside of him as he heard that, such a graceful being, lowered to being bred like a common mare. She deserved better, Roderich was sure of that. She had been so gentle and polite, a bit brash yes, but Roderich had found it endearing, lively in a way. She certainly deserved better.
But there was nothing he could do, was there?
Except…
He had to think about what Ludwig had said to him, about how he should find himself a dragon, he was a member of one of the seven head families afterwards. The thought was exciting and terrifying at the same time. He never wanted to have a dragon, they were wild beasts, barely tame and dangerous. But he just couldn't forget Elizaveta, and the thought of her fate down in the breeding dungeons made his stomach churn.
Roderich couldn't allow that. How was he supposed to idly stand by while a Lady was in peril? He couldn't free her, the Empire wouldn't allow that, and they would definitely kill her if they got her hands on her. A cold shudder ran through his body at that thought, he only had met her for a short time but already he felt a certain possessiveness and the will to protect her.
No, he would save her. Maybe she would hate him for binding her to him, maybe she would never forgive her, but he would give her as much freedom as he could and that would be enough for him. It wasn't common to take a female dragon, they weren't useful for battle, their bellies not protected by the thick scales that covered the rest of their bodies and thus they were exclusively used for breeding. But he wouldn't take her into battle, even if that marred his reputation.
He felt he owned that to her smile.
It had taken a bit of convincing but eventually Roderich had gotten Ludwig to accompany him down into the breeding den. The place wasn't as wretched as the main parts of the Pit, but still Roderich had wrinkled his nose more than once. Elizaveta had been in one of the cages, drugged into unconsciousness and bound by iron chains. Roderich actually had to do a double take because it was almost impossible to recognize the young cheerful Lady in that ragged emaciated body. Her handler explained that she was bound as punishment for her escape attempt and Roderich had almost lost his temper then.
Ludwig had to go through quite some trouble to finally get the permission to get Elizaveta out of there, apparently she was prime breeding material and Roderich had to pay a large sum to compensate for her loss.
But now she was finally put of there, lying in the bed in Roderich's guest room, kempt and clean, all she needed was to wake up to get some food. Roderich is anxious, so far all has gone well but he doesn't know how Elizaveta is going to react to her new surroundings, and the new spells on her body. There were only two but they hurt and she certainly wouldn't like him for putting them on her.
It took longer than expected for Elizaveta to wake up, and when she did, it was with a bang. Quite literal with a bang, because she somehow managed to roll right out of bed and onto the floor, all accompanied by a string of colorful courses.
Roderich realized that he might have been a bit quick with his earlier judgment, Elizaveta didn't seem much Ladylike in that situation.
"Okay now, where the hell am I, and more importantly how did I get here?" Elizaveta crawled back onto the bed, blanket pulled up behind her as she tried to bring order to her tangled up hair. She looked up for the first time and saw Roderich where he was standing in the doorframe, watching with a startled expression frozen on his face. Surprise fell on her features and she settled down to look at him.
"Ah." She just said, as if everything had been explained just by seeing Roderich's face. "I see." With that she just flopped back on the bed and closed her eyes. There was a tiny smile on her lips, almost too small to notice.
"I… ah…" Roderich started, but he didn't quite know what to say. He had expected her to wake up and throw a fit or something, he had prepared for her anger and her rebellion, but not for this. "Make yourself comfortable." He ended lamely, noting the blatantly obvious fact that she had gone ahead and done that already all by herself.
Getting used to Elizaveta in his life was easier than expected. She just silently accepted her new living conditions, commenting once that it was infinitively better than what she came from. He knew from Ludwig and from what he had seen, that the living conditions of breeding dragons were far from ideal, but there was something in her eyes that hinted that she had it a lot worse.
There were nights when she woke up from a nightmare, eyes staring wide and unblinking at the ceiling as her breath seemed to run a million miles. Roderich realized that he only got to see the tip of that iceberg, he only got alerted to these dreams when she woke with a scream or if he chanced to be awake while she was dreaming.
Elizaveta had her own room, adjacent to Roderich's and he was careful to respect her personal boundaries. She was a strong woman, there was no doubt about that, during the day she was also cheerful and friendly, taking to her new live with energetic will. It was during the nights that her shell cracked, and when Roderich woke one night with a shivering Elizaveta next to him, he realized that her wounds must have reached deeper than he expected.
He didn't say anything that night, he just pulled her into his arms and made soothing noises until her shivering ceased and she fell asleep. They didn't talk about the incident, Elizaveta being her cheerful self the next morning. But it wasn't the only time it happened, and between that and her repeating nightmares Roderich started to worry.
Ludwig suggested to bring her together with another dragon, maybe she needed non-human company and since they had planned to try out a new cake recipe together anyway, Ludwig suggested he bring Elizaveta along. It was a disaster, there was really no other way of saying it. Gilbert took one look at Elizaveta and made a crude comment, immediately sparking a heated response from her (involving an unfortunate frying pan from Ludwig's cupboards) and soon they were quite literally at each other's throat.
That night Elizaveta slept dreamless for the first time (She had moved into Roderich's room after she woke up in his bed three times in a row). And to Ludwig's and Roderich's surprise both dragons asked to see the other again someday, promising to keeping the damage at a minimum. When asked for the reason of that newfound attraction, the answer was in both cases evasive.
Slowly Elizaveta's nightly episodes diminished, she barely had nightmares anymore and with each time she got out to see Gilbert, or did something else that involved her being outside, her sleep became more restful. Roderich allowed her to fly to her heart's content, as long as she stayed in a certain distance to the palace, and she took to it like a bee to honey.
And something else changed too, while no longer in need of physical comfort, Elizaveta kept snuggling into Roderich every night and he really couldn't find one ounce of his body that complained. And then one night, after a long and stressful day, she crawled in next to him and kissed him before she said good night.
Roderich was surprised and he couldn't sleep that night, but when Elizaveta kissed him good morning he decided that this was a long overdue step in their relationship. He started accompanying her on her outside adventures, watching her spiral above the dragon towers, sometimes with Gilbert, mostly alone and it wasn't long until she asked him to join her.
It was exhilarating, Roderich's hands were clamped around her scales and he was terribly afraid of falling but at the same time he couldn't stop laughing. The wind whipped around them, the ground flew along underneath them and it was by far the best feeling he ever had.
He joined the rank of Dragon Lords at Ludwig's urging, using his tactical mind to the Empire's advantage but he insisted on being exempt from any fighting. Elizaveta met other dragons and befriended a few of them, but she would always refer to Gilbert as a best friend, a fact no one really believed after seeing those two fight.
And then one evening she told him her story, how she was bred in the dungeons, how she grew up under constant restrain and rules and how she tried so hard to escape only to be captured and bound again. And she told him of the things the men did to her, the things she had to endure, because she was pretty and her spirit unbroken. She told him of the shadows that still haunted her in her dreams, of the deep situated fear she still carried within her that she would one day wake up in darkness without hope.
That night Roderich took her for the first time, he laid her out on his bed and showed her with not so many words, but with his body how deeply he cherished her. And she was timid and shy, and he had to be tender because she was so fragile deep underneath her tough exterior, but when she came with a sigh under his hands he knew that eventually she would be alright.
That they would be alright.
He never regretted for one second that he had saved her, and when she told him for the first time that she loved him, he knew that she would forever be his only one.