Virion did not find sleep that night.

His active mind refused to settle or part from thoughts regarding the dragon slumbering in the chambers just opposite his. It was all his mind would entertain.

The prince could not deny his own feelings, and did not want to, but that did not lessen his shock by any measure.

He wondered when it happened, if there was a point he missed, but if it existed, he could not find it. It must have transpired seamlessly, quietly, but was sure to leave no room for denial once Virion acknowledged its presence.

When Zirkhlon knocked that night, Virion manned the other side of the door, his hand hovering to let him in. He did not, but not because of fear this time. There was no more fear.

By the time the moons parted to make room for Colony’s sun, Virion had not slept a single hirt. He felt no exhaustion, for his mind still pondered tirelessly, and before he knew it, he was dressed and perched upon his chambers’ lounger.

He did not bother with a morning meal— he felt no need for it. Instead, he stared out at the churning seas, an emptied version of himself.

A knock came eventually, requesting his return to the meeting rooms for a new feen of enduring the Assembly. Like a ghost in another’s flesh, he gathered himself and followed his attendant until he found himself at the doors he had slipped from just a moon prior.

Strange how he felt like an entirely different person now, especially when his seeking gaze found the dragon already searching for his.

Red-rimmed eyes found his, and Virion’s heart threatened to burst.

It was Zirkhlon as he had always known him, strong and capable, sure-footed and handsome, and yet, it was as if Virion was seeing him for the very first time. He was dressed finely in black silks, freshly groomed too, and even as he frowned tightly the longer their stare held, Virion could only marvel at the man before him.

He felt light-headed, and Zirkhlon stepped forth as if he could sense it, but then a hand slid over his elbow and tugged him away.

“You usually hide it better,” Syloce whispered as she guided them to their usual seats. She frowned at him, concern marring her features. “Are you alright, Virion?”

Virion was not sure.

His eyes zipped back to Zirkhlon as he took his seat. The dragon still watched him with concern, and oh, how it warmed his core even as the most skittish part of him wondered how far that concern went.

Virion broke their stare, looking instead to his tablet, only to realise he had not brought it today. He had not brought anything, in fact, having left in such a daze. He thought to return for it, but then the doors were closing and there was no time for such things.

Wordlessly, Syloce slid hers between the two of them and once again, Virion was exceedingly grateful for the friend he had made in her.

As voices rose, he stared at the tablet, but struggled to follow the information presented or the conversations shared. His mind was still buzzing and his heart thumping, and while his glamour hid that well, Virion could not hide from his own feelings.

Was the love he felt why he had learnt to enjoy the dragon’s purposeful prodding? Was it why he slept in his clothing each night after they parted? Why he had been so distraught once he had returned home and thought all they had to be a lie?

Virion thought of every moment they had shared, looking at it through a new lens, and found that his heart only stammered with pleasure as he revisited memories he had not allowed himself to before.

They explained it— how and why he fell for Zirkhlon.

It was in his attitude, sullen at first, judgmental too, and then teasing and bright. In his secret treasures that he’d shared only with Virion, and with such abandon, even from the night they met. In how relentlessly he pursued the prince, even to the detriment of his own name.

Virion never stood a chance. His heart had always been destined for Zirkhlon’s keep.

“I am afraid I must demand the room,” Zirkhlon’s voice suddenly declared, so tightly and with such unanticipated force that it drew Virion’s gaze to him. The dragon stared back, still frowning. “Now.”

No one moved. They were all certain they had heard wrongly.

“It is not a request,” Zirkhlon added, a warning in his voice treacherous enough to spur the movement.

Chairs screeched and with muttered, inflamed words of disbelief, the frustrated attendees piled out one after the other. Virion alone remained seated. Virion alone kept the dragon’s full attention.

When they were alone, the door slamming shut behind the escapees, Zirkhlon rose immediately to bring himself to the prince’s side. His expression was an open spectacle of agony, foregrounding his flaring concern as he knelt at Virion’s side without a thought.

He was lowering himself as no chieftain should, but Zirkhlon cared only to take the prince’s face in hand so he could look at him.

“What is it?” He asked, his deep cadence settling Virion’s pattering heart, only to kickstart it again. “What is it that troubles you?”

“How do you know that something troubles me?” He croaked, unable to stop himself when the dragon gazed at him so.

“I have watched you too closely to mistake when your mind is not at peace,” Zirkhlon replied without contemplation. “Now tell me,” his thumb moved over the prince’s cheek, “what troubles you, darling?”

Virion’s heart bled in his chest.

“Why do you want me?”

It was not the leap he was meant to take. He was supposed to be brave and confess how he felt now— that he knew it, consequences be damned— but the prince loved himself too much to take such a risk just so.

He needed something more, just a little. He needed to know that if he alone harboured the love now, or at the very least, if Zirkhlon was capable of doing the same soon.

The dragon stiffened, the scar slicing/snaking through his eye stretching as the prince glimpsed shock pass through him. Virion almost wanted to yank the words back, especially when Zirkhlon searched his gaze so intently, but when his lips parted, Zirkhlon merely shook his head.

“I will answer it,” he promised, one of his hands falling to slide over Virion’s. “Just give me a moment to make sure that when I do, it is right.”

Ears twitching, Virion nodded, and then, he waited.

He looked at the dragon so close now that he could smell him, focused on their clasped hands and the touch he had missed so, and waited quite serenely until Zirkhlon released a careful breath and spoke.

“All who see me who are not dragon-kin or old enough to know our tales always see this scar and think I earned it in some battle,” he began, his tone careful as he tilted his head in a silent gesture. “It was nothing so dramatic. Two of my kin were amidst a fierce battle that was going to raze their lands, lands I knew they each valued highly, and it seemed a waste for them to lose it all as a price for their temper.

“I was a kinder thing then you see, for now I would leave them to incite their own punishment.” Virion’s lips twitched, and the dragon’s curled in response. “This scar was the price I paid for separating them, and while they still pay me their apologies, it has never bothered me. I had not even known it was there until the blood seeped into my vision.”

Virion’s chest tightened as he stared at the man before him. It did not matter that this was a tale of past events that had ensued long ago— it still hurt him all the same to imagine.

“You see, I have always been a calm dragon, especially for a fire dragon,” Zirkhlon continued, painting a picture of himself that the prince was greedy to admire. “I react to little, and when I do, it is with a measured hand. I do not ever grow angry or escalate matters— only solve them. This is why I was chosen as chieftain by my kin.”

While he spoke, his expression was unwavering, but when he peered at the prince with what could only be described as devotion, his expression softened with impossible care. “And then, you arrived on my isle.”

Virion forced himself to breathe as his eyes darted between the dragon’s.

“You crashed onto my island and arrived with so many demands and judgments,” he relayed, telling the story with a warm smile that mirrored the fondness seeping into the prince’s chest as he listened. “Nothing was right, and you were sure to let me know, even as you endeavoured to mask it. It was terribly aggravating, and I would have thrown any other into the sea for the storm to tend to, but you were so damnably beautiful.”

His fingers skated across Virion’s cheek, and the prince leaned into the palm that ft like nothing else without a second thought. His eyes were filling, but he quickly blinked the moisture away, intent on listening to the very last word.

“I could not throw you out, least of all part from you, even while you vexed me so, and before I knew it, you had me shouting in the woods.” Zirkhlon chuckled then, shaking his head as he brought them closer to whisper, “I never shout. Never. But you brought me to that place, and then, you made me laugh.”

He smiled, and Virion could do nothing but cling to the man currently smothering his heart with the sweetest of words.

“You incensed me, you humoured me, you… Virion, you made me feel alive,” Zirkhlon’s eyes flared as if in testament. “And every moment that has followed in your presence has continued to do so, even the ones that have hurt.” He swallowed, throat straining, but he barrelled on for them both. “You have razed my heart and introduced me to emotions I thought myself incapable of feeling. You, Virion. Only you.”

“So, you ask me why—” he breathed, and Virion could hear his heart pounding. How telling that it was just as loud as his own. “…why I want you,” he smoothed his thumb over the prince’s cheek, reverent. “I want you because life in your absence was terribly muted, and I could never return to something so dull when I have come to love someone so bright.”

Virion did not want to make a habit of crying.

It would ruin his powders, and with the time and effort it took to set them, that was not a sacrifice he was willing to make. But, for this man, for this dragon who had just laid himself bare and offered the words Virion needed to leap, he found himself doing that very thing.

Virion dove at Zirkhlon, moving so quickly he just barely caught sight of bulging eyes before he was in the dragon’s arms, forcing him to hold him, to have him, to protect him. Though the very last thing it was was forced, for even as they swayed, Zirkhlon soon steadied them and wrapped his arms around Virion with all his might.

Zirkhlon held him tight, like a jewel that he had shed scales for, and Virion had never felt more precious.

“Does this mean—”

The dragon sounded scared to hope and yet unable to stop himself.

“I am leaping,” Virion replied, squeezing the dragon with all his might.

“You are… leaping?” Zirkhlon echoed, confused, but when Virion finally found the strength to pull back to look at his dragon, his love had not wavered any.

“To you, with you,” the prince explained with a smile so wide it ailed him, but it was a pain he gladly accepted as he took the dragon’s face in his hands for the first time.

Zirkhlon blinked at him, red eyes wide as he waited, hanging on his every word. Virion’s smile found the room to widen.

“I am yours now, so you must handle me well,” he stated as his joy returned to him, and with it, his light. “My upkeep is quite taxing, but you chose this, so you can never complain. You can only give me what I want, and in turn,” Virion’s eyes searched his dragon’s as he took his step and leapt, “I will love you with all I have and everything I am, until I return to Ythene with you.”

Zirkhlon did not react as Virion expected he might, which was with a cheer, or perhaps a slow-coming smile.

He stared at Virion as if he had not spoken at all, still seeming shocked, and then, the air in his lungs bellowed from him as he finally swayed and fell with the prince in his arms.

“Are you alr— oh!”

If Virion thought he held him tightly before, the former embrace was nothing compared to how the dragon clung to him now. He held him like he was the very air in his lungs, the sun in the sky and all he ever wanted.

He clutched Virion as if he meant to never let go, and Virion knew that to be exactly the case.

“Everything you want,” he agreed, breathing into his neck. “Everything and anything, at whatever cost.”

Virion felt his face heating and struggled not to squirm. “I was only teasing.” He was not, but he did not mean to spur this reaction.

“You were not,” Zirkhlon retorted quickly, making him scowl. The dragon lifted his head in time to see it and smiled, but it faded just as quickly as he peered at his treasure. “Even if you did not, it does not matter. I mean it, as I mean every word I have said to you, Virion. I will never tire of you. I will have you as mine. I will never hurt you again.”

He smiled then, reaching up to wipe Virion’s streaming tears, “I treasure you, Virion, and I will not let a day pass where you ever doubt that.”

Virion nodded, his lips pressed tight, for he could not convey words without sobbing, and that, he would not do. Thankfully, the nodding was enough for a smiling Zirkhlon, whom Virion discovered could light up a room when he was truly happy.

The dragon kissed his cheek and neck. He lavished him with affections and vows of commitment that made Virion feel as if he were flying, and he did not stop until Virion forced his head up so that he could have those vows upon his lips.

It was sweeter than their first, which had been a scorching hunger and uncapped desire. This was love and devotion. It was simultaneously coaxing and giving, and it undid Virion until he was nothing more than a vessel for the love this dragon poured into him.

And there was no more fear for there was nothing to be afraid of.

Viron had finally claimed his greatest treasure, and he would never let him go.

———————————

I’m crying…

Thoughts????????

Thoughts on Zirkhlon’s speech??? On them finally being together???? 

I had this speech in mind since the moment I started their story. Not word for word, but I had it in my head and when I got here, finally writing it, it felt so delicate and special, like these two’s relationship.

I adore Zirkhlon with all my heart and Virion too, they’re such a lovely match and I’m so happy seeing them come together like this

I think ya’ll will love how this all ends, and we’ll have that next week, before we let these two go ughhhhhh

Until next time,
Byeeeeeee humanssssss