David ran after his classmates as they charged out onto the playground. He hadn't decided yet what he wanted to play. Already, he could spot games of tag and hide-and-go-seek and soccer and kickball and baseball, but none of it looked interesting to him today. At least, not after he spotted the big sandpit.

Sitting on the edge of the sandpit were a few kids from one of the other preschool classes. He could count three kids; one: a girl, two: a girl, and three: a boy. One, two, three: three kids. He recognized the boy, but it took him a minute to remember where he had seen him before. When he did, his mouth split open in a wide smile. He ran over to the sand pit and stood behind the boy as the boy scooped sand into a pink teapot.

One of the little girls looked up at David with wide eyes, but she didn't say anything. David leaned forward to see what the small, brown-haired boy was doing.

When he saw the shadow covering him and part of the sandbox, Kurt looked up. A larger boy from one of the other classes stood over him, his hands on his hips. Kurt cowered a little, expecting the bigger boy to push him into the sand or something. The bigger boys liked pushing him around.

"Whatcha playing?"

Kurt held the plastic teapot up for his inspection. "Tea party."

David fought the urge to sneer. Tea parties weren't interesting. Real food was interesting. Make believe foods were not. Make believe yucky drinks like tea were especially not interesting. Even still, he wanted to play with the thin little boy that had watched him fly as a dragon. David wanted to show him his wings again; he wanted to show off for him. "Can I play?"

Kurt looked at the two girls he was playing with for their opinions. One of them, Lucy, didn't really seem to care, and continued playing with her 'tea'. The other one, Rachel, stared at the newcomer with wide-eyes and shook her head. She was used to the boys (and girls) pushing her around, just like Kurt. Kurt didn't really care what Rachel thought, though. She was kind of annoying. Kurt looked back to the big boy and handed him a teacup.

David plopped himself down beside the teacup boy. After he was seated, the conversation started up; they were talking about things David didn't understand. The blonde girl was talking about her husband and all of her children. The brunette girl was talking about going to dinner with someone named 'Bette Midler' and the boy was talking about his trip to Paris. David suddenly felt very left out of the conversation. Everyone seemed to know what the other was talking about and have some kind of interesting story to top it. David wasn't sure what he could talk about. He could tell them about being a dragon; he was sure that would interest them…but mommy and daddy would be angry with him. The blonde girl pretended to take a sip of her tea (which was really sand). David mimicked the action but couldn't understand how it was "fun." He looked back at the pale boy as he scrunched up his nose, laughing at something Rachel had said. He really wanted to play with the boy. Just the two of them; no weird girls around.

David, not sure how to play properly with his teacup, dumped the sand back into the sand pit and started using the teacup as a makeshift shovel. When that proved to be inadequate, he tossed the cup to the other boy's feet and started digging with his hands. After he had gotten a foot or so, he realized the conversation around him had stopped. Looking up, he saw three sets of very bewildered eyes looking at him: a pair of brown eyes, a pair of green eyes, and a pair of strange, multi-colored eyes. The owner of the green eyes was the first to speak, "What are you doing?"

David flicked his own eyes between each of theirs, not sure what to do or what to say. "Um…diggin?"

The brown-haired, brown-eyed girl looked confused. "Like a dog?"

Kurt was just as confused as his friends, but he thought they were sounding a bit mean. The big boy looked kind of sad. And he was probably lonely if he wanted to play with them. No one ever wanted to play with them. "You're good at digging." The big boy smiled, his chubby cheeks indenting with small dimples. Kurt smiled back at him.

A sharp whistle pierced the air. Kids from all over the playground started heading – some running, some walking – back to their classrooms. The brown haired boy stood up and patted the sand off of his pants, getting them nice and clean. David stood up and tried to mimic his actions, but the dirt had ground too much into the knees of his pants and become a dark smear. By the time he realized his pants weren't going to come clean and looked back up, the smaller boy was gone. David spotted him in the crowds of kids heading to Ms. Lily's class. David chased after him and practically knocked him over when he tapped him on the shoulder.

Kurt turned around, his eyes wide and terrified, but his eyes softened when he saw who it was. "I'm David."

Kurt smiled and waved at him. "I'm Kurt."

xoxoxo

David met with his new friends (technically, new friend; the girls didn't like him too much) everyday at recess. They would have a little tea party and talk about their glamorous lives (which David eventually realized were make-believe) while he dug in the ground. At least that's what he did do until one of the teachers told him his digging was wrecking the sandbox and he needed to cover his holes when he was done. He stopped digging after that and tried to find other ways of impressing Kurt.

That's how he wound up in a handstand, balancing on the side of sandbox opposite Kurt. Kurt giggled at him. "I see your tummy." David looked down (up) and saw that his shirt had come un-tucked from his pants and his whole stomach was showing. David tried to fix his shirt but when he lifted his hand from the ground he toppled over onto his back. He stared at the sky for a minute listening to the three of them giggle at him while he desperately wished he could bury himself in one of his holes.

As the whistle shrieked, once again announcing the end of recess, the two girls raced past David. Kurt stopped though and held out his hand to help up David. David took his hand and pushed himself up to his feet. David didn't want to let Kurt's hand go; it was soft and warm. Kurt was the first to let go, though, and turned to run off to his own class, leaving David behind at the sandbox.

David struggled to tuck his shirt back into his pants as he walked to class. Something caught his eye on the sidewalk leading to the classroom. Bending over, David plucked up a shiny penny. David stuck his tongue between his teeth as he smiled at his tiny treasure. Tucking it into his back pocket, he decided he'd give it to Kurt tomorrow.

xoxoxo

Kurt had liked the penny. He liked it! David had felt so happy when Kurt saw the penny and Kurt smiled.

David felt warm and fuzzy all over. He wanted to give Kurt more things like the penny. He knew he couldn't take money from his mommy and daddy, though. Daddy cared very much about money and would be sad if David took some of his money, so David decided he'd give Kurt something else just as pretty and just as shiny. He knew exactly where to get it.

Mommy was doing laundry in the basement and daddy was at work; he shouldn't have any problem getting what he needed. Mommy and Daddy's room was always so neat and clean, he knew exactly where he'd find what he needed. Pulling out the second drawer from the bottom in the bureau, David stepped up into the pile of clothing. Then he pulled out the middle drawer, just enough to step up into it. He almost lost his footing but grabbed onto the handle on the top drawer to steady himself. When he stopped wobbling, he lifted his other foot to place that in the middle drawer. This time he really did lose his balance. Gripping the handle on the top drawer, as he reeled back, he felt the drawer coming with him. David's heel caught on the back of the middle drawer as he toppled over, causing him to twist in midair. He landed heavily on his wrist and hip, the top drawer coming out of the dresser and smacking him in the face. David let out a blood-curdling scream even before he tasted the blood.

As David continued to cry, even over his own wails he could hear the sound of stomping on the stairs as his mother ran to him. He was only vaguely aware of her scooping him into her arms, but even still he wrapped his arms around her neck and tried burying his head against her chest until his split lip pressed against her shirt causing a spike of pain to shoot through his face. He pulled his head back and wailed even louder. "Hush, sweety, hush. Oh god. Come on, let's get you to the hospital."

As his mother settled him in the car, she didn't bother with his car seat; she just strapped him into the front passenger seat so she could keep an eye on him. His screaming had died down a little, but he was still crying out little hiccupy sobs. Pulling out her cellphone, she called her husband's office. "Jaz? Jazmine, connect me to Paul, it's an emergency" His secretary dropped the phone onto the desk and rushed off to find Paul. Less than a minute later, a breathless Paul had scooped up the phone.

"Deb? What happened?"

"David fell and split his lip wide open. His mouth is bleeding pretty badly. I'm taking him to the ER."

"I'll meet you there." There was the thump of Paul trying to re-holster the landline in its cradle but missing.

His secretary picked the phone up. "Debra? What's wrong?"

"David was climbing my dresser and all the drawers came out on top of him. His lip is ripped open, but the way he's bleeding, I think he knocked out a tooth, as well."

xoxoxo

The doctor gave him a shot to numb up the area around his mouth before cleaning up the blood. Aside from the slice in his lip from the drawer, he had knocked out two teeth and bitten through the indent beneath his lower lip. The teeth he had knocked out would grow back (even if he weren't a dragon that re-grew its teeth, they had been baby teeth anyway). The lip had needed three stitches total. "So Mr. David. What did you do to hurt yourself so bad?"

David looked between his parents, neither of them looked too angry at him, they looked more relieved than anything…and maybe a little disappointed. "I was climbing mommy's dresser."

"Might I ask why?"

David pouted; even though his lips were still kind of numb, it hurt to stick his lower lip out. "I wanted to play with mommy's jewelry box."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. Paul coughed into his fist. "David and I are…we're dragons." The doctor, his eyes slightly widened, looked a bit surprised by that, but said nothing. "He's attracted to gold." It was nothing new to anyone; dragons were notorious for their protective love of precious metals, rare stones, even paper money to some smaller degree. "Usually it doesn't become a problem until they're older and find a mate…but David's always been a bit precocious. He started flying a few weeks ago." David's flight capabilities were completely irrelevant to the conversation, but Paul said it with an air of pride.

"Well, you might want to consider putting the jewelry box somewhere he can reach it or get him his own jewelry to play with so this doesn't happen again."