Billy sat at the table opposite his mother, waiting with loosely hidden interest for the remaining chairs to be taken. The ones he and his mother had were from the original dining set, soft, but with chair backs – something neither of the reptiles could comfortably place themselves onto. The stools, thoughtfully offered to the husband and his visitor, were lacking this feature as to be comfortable for creatures with tails.
The boy curiously turned to the sound of approaching heavy footsteps as the two reptiles entered the dining room side by side. His father has certainly gained quite a little height and mass after the transformation, but even he looked dwarfed by the orange creature right next to him, his sheer size and muscles enough to intimidate anyone. Seeing them side by side made the differences even clearer for Billy, as not only did they have substantially different builds, but, seemingly, even their very physiologies. The most noticeable difference was in the way they walked, of course: with Connors moving relatively upright and human-like, adjusting ever so slightly for the tail behind him, while Stegron assumed an entirely different posture, hunching his long neck further forward, the tail high above the ground and actively helping with balance as he remained standing on his toes at all times.
Another difference that stood out was how Curt's smooth scales glittered evenly in the lights with a beautiful ornament, while Stegron's looked rougher and a bit more hectic, resembling leathery pebble. His scale pattern consisted of irregular pieces of varying sizes over his whole body, with a lighter shade on the front and under the tail. He also had a distinct sharp beak in contrast to Curt's teeth-filled snout. But the most easily noticeable differences were probably the numerous bony protrusions – large rectangular plates that went in two rows across the reptile's back and formed four sharp spikes at the tip of his tail.
Lastly, Connors was much leaner, most of his toned reptilian body well hidden from unwanted stares under the baggy clothes, but Stegron stayed comfortably bare scaled, even if it didn't quite register as such because of his overall rather exotic appearance, with his entire self out on display. Connors would often wrap himself almost head to tail when he'd go outside, but, frankly, Billy had his doubts that the orange saurian here could hide effectively or pass for a human even if he wanted to. Standing at 7'5'' tall with such massive body there was no keeping a low profile in a crowd for him either.
Truth be told, it was not quite what he imagined when his father told him earlier about the guest. Then again, he could hardly imagine someone like that even if he was described in more detail. Yet more surprising was that Billy couldn't remember any animals that would resemble this new character. He was dying to ask what species he was, but didn't want to come off as rude, especially in light of how delicate this topic was for his father.
Stegron suspiciously examined his plate, sniffing the contents in front of him a few times before addressing the hosts.
"Exxxcussse me, but isss that cheessse I ssssmell on top?" he rasped. "You might not be aware of thisss, but reptilessss are lactossse intolerant. We cannot digessst it."
Martha stopped with her fork midway to her mouth to shoot Stegron a worried glance, then quickly turned to Connors who had already finished half of his portion and didn't seem to pay the remark any attention, clumsily digging with fork and knife into more of the meat.
"You... didn't know?" Stegron concluded from the expression. "Have you never kept a pet lizard?"
There was an audible crack as the metal fork in Connor's hand snapped in half. He glared at the saurian across the table with furious red eyes, deep lines forming on his forehead, as his patience was reaching a boiling point. He put all his effort to speak as softly as he could.
"I. Am not. A Lizard!" Connors hissed, his clawed hands on the table, raising slightly, the tip of his tail whipping menacingly behind him.
"You sssure look like one though" Stegron reminded nonchalantly. "No offenccce, but whatever you think you are, you ssshould know better than to eat what isss poisssonousss to you. Who am I teaching anyway?" he snorted, noticing Curt was too furious and not taking any of that on board. "Aren't you a Herpetologissst yourssself? You ssshould be the expert here, not me"
Billy cast a concerned glance at his father. Everything started to make sense. He remembered how not so long ago his father did seem not quite all right after a cup of white coffee, and then he stayed at the bathroom for a long time after eating porridge for breakfast, which had milk and butter. So he couldn't eat any dairy products all this time, but never said a word?! If Dr Stegron didn't just share with them, they probably would have never guessed the cause to his sickness. And worse than that, was Dr Stegron implying that Connors knew it all this time, but still kept it a secret?
"I... had no idea..." Martha confessed. "I am so sorry! Dr Stegron, Curt, please give me the plates, I'll cook something else in a jiffy. Curt!" She insisted softly but firmly, clearly indicating it was not the time to argue with her. The Lizard slowly set back, breathing deeply to calm down and passed the plate to his wife.
"I... do like cheesse. And milk. And butter" he said after a while, a little nostalgically and not addressing anyone in particular, but seemingly responding to Stegron's advice. "It iss hard not to be able to eat what you like. It frusstrratess me. I am ssorry I lasshed out like that"
Stegron let out an uncertain soft snort, but didn't say anything.
"Uhm, Dr Stegron, are you currently working on any research?" Billy tried to change the topic in hopes to lighten the mood.
"Ah, yesss..." The saurian sounded surprised at the sudden interest. "I have a project in mind. I am building a ray that can reanimate dinosssaursss from fosssilssss."
"Woah!" Billy gasped. "Really?! Is that even possible?!"
"Quite ssso, I do believe" The saurian replied confidently. "In fact, part of it hasss already worked, hasssn't it?" he pointed at himself. "I have already reasssembled one, after all, jussst not... quite asss I intended. The sssserum wassss sssssuposssed to add other sssspeciessss DNA to reconssstruct the remnantsss of an ancccient ssspeccciesss, and it did! It jussst wasssn't sssssuposssed to do ssso inside another organisssm, that isss. I'll try not to hit myssself with the beam thissss time."
"Wait… do you mean you are a dinosaur?!" Billy was at a loss of words. He had a hunch of course, but his guesses were far more modest. It all made sense now: his strange plates, tough scales and large claws, but it still felt too much like science fiction even for someone who already lived with a humanoid lizard.
"Correct. A hybrid of two, actually" Stegron added.
The conversation was interrupted as Martha returned with a freshly roasted stake and some dill on top, no cheese this time. The table fell silent once again. Connors did not look in the mood for a conversation at the moment and silently turned to his dish. Stegron looked down at his own plate, then back at Connors who already worked his way through with a knife and a fork, just like a human would, he noticed, if not for the large jaws filled with razor sharp teeth which made him look a little silly sticking a little fork into.
Stegron sighed. The number of fingers was not really a problem for him to hold the utensils as well, but his claws were too big and would get in the way. It was a very long time since he used human instruments to eat, he thought. In the end he always found using his claws alone was more convenient. One other thing, of course, was that he couldn't chew that well with a beak. Usually he swallowed the food whole and then followed it with a few stones or gravel to help grind the food already inside his stomach, but the humans were hardly expected to have anticipated that. Sure enough, there wasn't anything suitable prepared on the table.
Stegron snatched the piece with a claw and dropped the steak into his mouth in one motion, gulping it whole.
Martha stopped with a fork in mid air for a second, forgetting to chew as she regarded her guest with a mix of surprise and disapproval. She did realize soon after, however, that she shouldn't be too hard on the visitor, especially since he was a friend of Curt's and she didn't want him to feel any more uncomfortable, partcularly after that awkward incident with cheese. She remembered Curt's warnings that his friend was a little 'wild', and she seemed to understand what he meant. Truth be told, she was also a little ashamed to admit she knew so little about reptiles even though she was living with one for more than four years now. If only Curt let her in on what was right and wrong for reptiles instead of letting her do the guesswork!
Martha dug the fork in and continued eating as if nothing had happened.
The dinosaur man licked the dripping juice from his beak, but there was still more where he couldn't reach, plus his claws were now dirty too, and everyone looked at him weird.
"Can I usssse a bathroom?" He asked.
"Of course! Follow me!" Billy offered eagerly.
The saurian followed young Billy upstairs to where the bathroom was, finding it just large enough to accommodate him with his long tail and all, if he didn't move around too much. He also appreciated a warm brown rug with short fluff on the floor - a pleasing experience for his bare soles compared to cold stone he was expecting, all while also conveniently protecting the tiles from the sharp claws, no doubt a house of someone who was used to having large reptiles around.
The Doctor took a moment to enjoy the warm water, but the fat wouldn't come off just yet. He looked around for some soap and went through a line of gels and shampoos on the nearest shelf. As he went through one after another, it struck him that all of those were for humans. Eventually he found a bar of soap, but there wasn't a single reptile-friendly gel he'd recognize. He certainly hoped Connors wasn't stupid enough to wash scales with a shampoo for mammal hair, but he wouldn't put it past him. Just as he was about to come out and scold his friend, the saurian heard bits of a conversation from behind the door.
"Curt, I thought we talked about this already! Why do you keep to yourself so much? I understand that you may feel embarrassed, but we need to know how to best suit your needs! If only you told me sooner...! And even that dream you had...! This cannot go on!"
"Martha..." Curt whispered with deep care in his voice, his light hissing almost inaudible. "It iss all right. You don't have to worry. I have everything under control, I promisse."
"No, you do not!" Martha was raising her voice now. "You are going too hard on yourself! Think about Billy! What will happen if something goes wrong one day? Can you guarantee his safety? You know we love you, dear! We love the person you are, the loving husband and the caring father. To us it doesn't matter how you look, but we don't want to be a burden for you. We want you to be happy! Please, you need to take more care of yourself as well. We know you haven't changed and you don't have to prove it, but... the circumstances change, and sometimes we need to adjust, to adapt."
Connors sighed in defeat. He knew she was referring to his accident in the army, in which he lost an arm. Trying to grow it back he began to study reptiles, fascinated by certain lizards' ability to regenerate a tail once it was lost. In a way he succeeded, he had two arms now, but he also lost so much more. Each and every time he tried to fix his mistake, he'd only make it worse. Now he was stuck, trapped inside the Lizard's body for the rest of his days.
Yet it could still be way worse than that, like if he lost his sentience as well, for example, and that could have easily been one of the possible outcomes. Back when he lost his arm, he was drowned in self-pity, determined to succeed, never even considering the alternative if he were to fail. He couldn't even imagine what might become of him if he were to fail fixing 'the Lizard' until it would be too late. Knowing this, he gave up on the cure long ago, instead putting his trust into his friends and family who talked him out of it, but sometimes bitter thoughts still crossed his mind.
In those times he was grateful for Martha's warmth and support as she, unbeknown to her, had stopped him once again from making a horrible mistake. He already had everything he could wish for. Did he need to be anything else for his family to love him? Curt agreed to accept himself as the Lizard and was not going back on his word, yet he could not always quite follow on his promise and even being reminded of what he was sometimes hurt his feelings. Perhaps, deep down he couldn't help but think of it as his punishment, and the negative feelings kept crawling and piling at the back of his mind.
In the past month he became noticeably angrier, reverting to his reptilian instincts when he least expected. This was becoming a problem. Curt deeply regretted taking his anger today on Stegron. He knew the saurian meant well for him even if he was a little blunt with it.
"Maybe... you are right..." Connors finally admitted.
"Perfect!" Martha exclaimed. "Then let's treat ourselves and go somewhere on a picnic the next weekend! Somewhere far and deep in the forest, with no people around for miles! Only the rustling trees, birds singing and lots of fresh air! Wouldn't that be a great way to relax?"
Stegron smirked, waiting for them to finish before turning the door handle and making his exit.
"No need to thank me, my friend." He thought to himself, rather pleased. "Though you are most welcome!"