Chapter 15: Difficulties With A Dragonewt (Part 2)
"Draco," I call, knocking on the door.
"Ugghh, what is it?" She asks, irritated.
"Could you please come downstairs?" I question.
"I'm good," she answers.
"It's only for a moment," I clarify.
"… Are you gonna leave me alone for the rest of the day if I do?" She says.
I can't exactly say yes to that when dinner is a thing.
"I won't bother you for six hours," I answer.
"Sucks to be you then! No deal!" She shouts.
Damn it!
"So you have zero interest in meeting the other homestay?" I inquire.
"Are they a fellow reptilian female by chance?" I can hear the genuine curiosity in her voice.
Coaxing her seems to be the better option rather than dragging her out of the room so let's go with that instead.
"Maybe, maybe not. You won't find out by staying in there," I say slyly.
Hearing the door unlock, she opens it.
"Alright, I'm interested. I will see who this other homestay is at the very least. Be grateful that I'm allowing you to be graced with my superiority once more," she says, her arms crossed as she lets out a pompous laugh.
I can still feel her hatred emanating from her person but I guess hearing her talk down to me is better than outright vitriolic hostility.
I'll assume this is her way of trying to interact so I'm wondering how long it lasts.
"She is waiting downstairs in the living room," I say.
"Then let's go," she says.
We head back downstairs.
"Sorry for the wait but I managed to get her to come out. Meet the new homestay, you guys!" I say, bringing Draco in.
"Draco?!" Polt and Lilith gasp, surprised.
"P-Polt?! L-Lilith?!" Draco gasps back, shocked.
"Wait! Both of you know her too?!" I shout, taken aback.
First, it was Lilith with Polt.
Now, it's Draco with the both of them!
How many times will I be the only one who doesn't already know someone?
"Draco and Lilith were doing community service together under my supervision. That's how we know her," Polt explains.
"As well as making us do that dreaded lap," Draco and Lilith groan.
"Hold up! You don't get to lament about it seeing as it was your fault because you felt the need to try and lie to Polt about your age!" Draco shouts, pointing a finger at Lilith.
"It was worth a shot! I regret nothing, kihihi!" Lilith giggles.
What are the chances Smith gave me Draco and Lilith because of Polt being around me so she could "reunite" them together under one roof?
Bet Smith will write it off as a coincidence or claim she didn't even realize it until after the fact if I ask.
Draco sighs deeply.
"What are you two doing here anyway? Which one of you is the first homestay if I'm the second one?" Draco questions.
I feel like that should be rather obvious given Polt's roles in the program.
"I'm the first, of course," Lilith states.
"Then what's Polt here for? Passing by or something?" Draco asks.
"I like to think of this place as my second home. Most importantly, I'm here because of Ryuta. In fact, come over here, would you?" Polt beckons me with a finger.
I take my seat beside her.
"At first, I was just his personal trainer but now he's my sweetheart as well!" She holds me close, giving me a quick kiss.
"P-Polt!" I blush.
"Hey, you may have been first but you can't go excluding me! He's our sweetheart," Lilith says, quickly moving from her seat to sit on the other side of me.
"So both of you are dating him then?" Draco inquires.
"Correct," Polt and Lilith say.
"Whatever floats your boat. I'm going back to my room. Went through all of this trouble for there to not be a fellow reptile," Draco mutters, about to leave.
"Actually, I'm about to start cooking brunch so you might as well stick around," I say.
"I'll just eat some snacks instead," she says.
"Or you could have a nice hot meal that has my love and effort put into it," I say.
"Yeah, I think I'd rather have junk. At least I know it won't kill me outright," she insults.
And there it goes.
So that's how it is, huh?
Polt and Lilith look at me in shocked silence, knowing I'm not gonna take that lying down.
"Polt, Lilith. Please cover your ears and don't intervene," I advise, standing up.
As they do so, I walk up to Draco and clear my throat.
I don't like doing this but I don't think I got a choice in this matter!
Time to launch my ultimate tool of persuasion!
"I don't appreciate your insult about my cooking and that hurts my feelings, Draco," I say politely, cranking my feminine voice to the maximum.
"W-What just happened to your voice?! A-A-And I couldn't give less of a shit about your dumb feelings!" She yells, stammering with a heavy blush on her face.
"You can't say my cooking is bad unless you try it first. Otherwise, that's unfair. Smith told you to give me a chance and you're not willing to even make the attempt to do as she said," I say, grabbing one of her hands with both of mine and forcing tears out to help my eyes twinkle.
I'm being a bit over dramatic considering it's only the first day but maybe I can bypass a lot of her barriers this way.
"H-Hey! L-Let go of my hand! Your filth is contaminating it! And stop d-doing that damn voice, it's seriously confusing me!" Draco tries to pull her hand away from my strong grip to no avail.
"Say you'll try my cooking then!" I shout.
"I would rather die!" She retorts.
"Why must you be so resistant just because I'm a guy?!" I ask.
In our tug of war, I pull just a little too hard and trip, resulting in Draco falling on top of me.
Not part of the plan.
"You want me to give you a chance? How am I to be convinced that that's worth doing?" She questions.
Gotta wing it now.
I hug her tightly, feeling a slight tremble from her body.
"R-Ry-," I cut her off with my lips on hers.
"Ryuta!" Polt and Lilith call out in disbelief, removing their hands from their ears.
This is heavily excessive but I gotta show her what I offer and hope that it's enough to crack through her hatred to some extent.
Breaking the kiss, Draco and I breathe heavily, our cheeks flushed.
"You're my homestay now, Draco. I have nothing but love and care to give. Even if you don't want it, you're gonna get it anyway. I'm not gonna push you away nor mistreat you. That's not the kinda guy I am let alone that type of host," I say gently, going back to my normal voice.
"I… I… I'll try... Ryuta," Draco says softly.
"Looking forward to your efforts," I say, chuckling.
"Good grief, Ryuta. You had me worried for a second," Polt sighs.
"I thought that kiss would trigger an actual fight," Lilith says.
"I-It wouldn't have gone that far. Maybe a slap at most," Draco says defensively as she lets me get up.
Polt and Lilith look at each other for a moment as if they can't believe her.
"You are known to do things that go too far, especially above the result you desire," Polt says.
"N-No, I don't," Draco says.
"You really do though," Polt and Lilith say, unimpressed.
"Name one!" Draco says.
"You really want me to remind you that time when you were at the park with M-" Polt begins to say.
"You shut up! You can't use that one!" Draco interrupts Polt, desperately trying to not let her bring it up.
I don't know why but it felt like Polt was about to say Miia.
I'm pretty sure my brain just jumped the gun is all.
"I believe I can seeing as it's on your permanent record," Polt laughs.
"I don't care!" Draco screeches, comically freaking out.
"Alright, it's time to settle down. Let's get brunch set up," I say.
Despite botching my plan, that went pretty well in my opinion.
Her aura of hate has even toned down a lot.
I wonder what's in store for me now that it's Polt and two homestays.
A/N: These Draco chapters were originally planned to be darker and more serious but I ultimately decided that they would drag on for too long and were doing far too much even for me. I really didn't like it. Lightening the mood up helped me create this chapter as fast as I did. Still deciding how I want to handle the rest so just a warning that some future Draco chapters may or may not dip its toe in dark themes. If done, it will be much more tamer than the original plans.