You may recognize this one, that's because I had to move three chapters due to a scheduling error, and this is where it really belonged. It's a bit different though, because consistency.

As I'm still learning the language, I can only hope the titles are correct, but be assured I will change them if/when I find out any mistake; atte. Skyler Ghesh

Hey! Happy pride!

13. Οι μυστικά

For the time being they go to the orchard almost daily, and now Connor isn't the only one looking for signs of anything resembling human presence with borderline paranoia, which is good if only because four eyes see more than just the two, and Evan has a ridiculously sharp nose.

There's a freedom to Evan that wasn't there before, he's still cautious in the nest, but now he takes Tera out and shifts to play-fight with her, teaching her how to dragon in a way Connor can't, though he can easily join them if he's in the mood. Evan also has started talking to Tera in draconic, which rings in Connor's ears as something he should understand the way he does English, if not better.

Connor asks, because he sort of gets why Tera thinks in draconic, as animal language is generally easier to kids than human language - mainly due to animal languages being simple sounds -.

"How come you know dragon? Or still know it I guess"

Evan smiles in slight amusement.

"It's called draconic"

Connor rolls his eyes, that's the other thing, Evan is a lot more outspoken now, though he still sometimes trips over himself because he's yet to trust Connor fully; which is completely understandable. The omega starts picking at the grass, which likes to grow just slightly taller around him.

"My mom knew it from her family, because dracon-ism is apparently somewhat genetic, and once my dad was out of the picture, she started teaching me"

Connor nods at this, it makes a lot of sense.

"I guess my dad was the one to pass it down then, my mom is an actual leopard; come to think of it, I'm not sure how she knew I was a dragon in the first place"

Evan gave him a look, but his face changed when he realized Connor was being serious.

"Uhm Connor, you do know dragons are reptiles, right?"

Connor frowns at him, like, obviously he does.

"I was wondering why I had so many scales"

Evan gives him a look but his lips flinch with a smile for just a second, just long enough that Connor knows he found it amusing.

"Connor, how are reptiles born?"

The alpha shrugs.

"I mean, as far as I know they come out of- oh, oh my god"

Evan looks impossibly amused by his reaction.

"We fucking hatch?"

Evan starts actually laughing.

"How did- how did you not- not know?"

"Everything makes so much sense"

Evan just laughs louder, and Connor allows himself a moment to appreciate the sound, and the way Evan's entire demeanor has shifted; now that the idea of Evan bearing ill intent is out of the equation, it's harder for Connor to stop himself from being really gay.

Eventually Evan calms down, but the smile lingers in his face, and it's different from every other smile he's donned before, and maybe Connor feels a little possessive over its existence, and maybe his heart does a flip at the sight.

It's become a lot harder to tell himself he didn't know what was happening. Connor Murphy was slowly but surely developing a crush of Evan fucking Hansen of all people, there was no way around it, but Connor was not going to let that ruin everything.

-.- . / - .-.. -.. . / .-. - ...- / ... .- .. - -.-. ... . .-. - -

Besides the odd feeling that came with having someone other than his mom know about his true animal, there was something else trying to take over Evan; that something had everything to do with Connor. The orchard visits were shorter for Evan now - Connor was an expert at skipping, but Evan didn't want to take the risk -, but now they represented time in which he could be in dragon form without worrying as much, and Tera seemed to be getting better at controlling when she shifted thanks to the constant practice.

There was also the time spent together in school, as Connor stuck around as much as possible - Evan wouldn't let him if his class was on the other side of the school, no matter what the alpha said -, which was a good thing if only due to the fact that Jared was avoiding Evan like the plague, and walking the halls alone as an omega was not a good idea. Was it odd that Evan sort of enjoyed it? It probably was… no, it definitely was, let's be real here; like, how is Evan so… comfortable? With Connor?

It's only been what? Two weeks? Yeah, not even a month, and even a month shouldn't be enough to erase the inbuilt reaction he is supposed to get at Connor being so close, not only because of the rumors he's been unable to avoid hearing, but also, and honestly more importantly, because of his status as an alpha. Maybe being stricken out as useless for the size of the animal he had chosen as his cover had gotten him so used to alphas plain out ignoring him, that it overwrote his natural instincts; something to be worried about, for sure.

Or maybe - and here's the part that Evan doesn't want to think about, doesn't want to partake in this rusted out dance where he makes up perfection in wistful dreams that'll never be, not again, not with the one person that knows his secret other than family -, Evan is been affected enough by the having an alpha not only acknowledge his existence, but seek him out for help, despite and recently also because of what he is; that he's become infatuated by it. Evan tried his best to ignore this trail of thinking though, it never bode well to form crushes on people when you were trying to hide from the government, specially not when - or not even if - they are doing the same thing.

So he just hides it, like everything else in his life, and he hopes this is the one thing he can keep Connor from finding out; the alpha now has an extensive track record for seeing through him, but Evan had good reason to believe he wouldn't take this one thing well at all. It was doomed for disaster, so Eva would keep it quiet for as long as he could.