Green Dragon - 2. Moving Fast

Zachary stared at the napkin, the numbers dancing before his eyes. He was stuck at home, just waiting for something to happen. And it didn’t sit well with him.

He didn’t want to read. Every time he turned on the telly he ended up turning it off again. The flat was too quiet, but if he made any noise, suddenly it seemed too loud. It wasn’t his first experience with depression, and it certainly wouldn’t be his last. The million pound question was whether or not he wanted to make this call.

Talking had definitely helped him the night before. But now he felt Eric’s absence even more keenly. It felt like a void in his chest that could never be filled.

Zachary wasn’t stupid; he knew this feeling would go away. It had before. But that didn’t help in the moment.

“Sod it all,” he muttered, grabbing his phone.

It didn’t take long for an answer.

“This is David Enterai, how can I help you?”

“Hey, this is Zachary, from the pub. I was wondering if you wanted to meet up for drinks. I’ll buy.”

“I would love to get some drinks with you. I can pay for my own.”

He could hear the minor amusement in the older dragon’s voice.

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“When do you want to meet? And where?”

“You know where the Hole in the Wall is. Why don’t we meet there? I really just need to get out a bit.”

“Of course. I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes?”

Zachary nodded. He could do that.

“Sure,” he agreed.

They sat at a table in the corner of the pub, both sipping at different drinks. Now that he had the elf here, Zachary had no idea what to say. They didn’t know each other, not really. It had been over a year since he had done this with Eric, and he was completely lost.

“So…” he swallowed drily.

“Look at us, both old and wise yet unable to start a simple conversation,” David chuckled. “At least, I’m assuming you’re old… Forgive me if I’m wrong.”

“Old to some,” Zachary said. “And you are at least one hundred twenty years old, correct?”

“Fuck… um, let’s see… thirty-six… yeah, I’m about a hundred seventy eight, give or take a couple years.”

“You don’t know how old you are?” Zachary laughed.

“To be fair, I stopped counting in 1895.”

“Why would you stop…”

Zachary noticed a flash of pain running through the other dragon’s eyes.

“Nevermind,” he said quickly. “You lived in the nineteenth century? What was that like?”

“What was the first sixty years of my life like? That is a tough question. It was rather chaotic, mainly because I refused to do anything my mother wanted me to. I didn’t meet my dad until last year actually. My family is kind of messed up because of him. Let’s see… I lived in Prussia for the first sixteen years of my life and left home as soon as I could, moving to America. I made my way west, briefly having my first sexual encounter with a rabbit named Johnathon. Though I’m not too certain he was my first. There’s a night at a pub where I got rather drunk on tequila, and met an Asian dragon when I was twenty… but I’m certain nothing came of it.”

Zachary listened intently, the story fascinating him. Sure it was more of a summary than a story, but still, here was a living piece of history.

“Certainly someone like you has had plenty of encounters,” he said.

“Encounters, yes. Lovers, no. There was a horse in the early twentieth century, but we weren’t lovers. Hell, we didn’t even touch each other that way. He was just a really good friend.”

“Was?”

David nodded.

“He was Jewish. And gay. The Nazis jumped on him as soon as they came to power. He tried to escape from one of their camps and they shot him in the back.”

Zachary winced.

“I killed der Arscheloch who pulled the trigger though,” David said, looking satisfied.

“My tale isn’t nearly as violent. I am a bit of a recluse, generally staying home to read unless my mum drags me out of the flat. Met my first crush back in the nineties, but he didn’t feel the same way about me. Kind of ruined me for love until I met Eric. I know the whole ‘plenty of fish’ thing, and honestly I don’t give a fuck about that.”

“How did you two get together?”

Zachary shrugged.

“It was supposed to be a hookup, but apparently neither of us got the memo. And neither of us had actually done anything with anyone else. I still haven’t to be honest.”

“Not even when you went to a hookup?”

David raised his eyebrows, his face becoming even sharper with the motion.

“We are both tops, but that honestly didn’t bother me. I would have been fine never having sex,” Zachary said.

David nodded, taking a drink. Their conversation lulled momentarily, Zachary trying to find something else to talk about.

“Well, if anything ever happens between us, not that I’m saying it will, I can’t promise to give anyone my heart,” David said. “That has caused trouble for me in the past, so I’m putting it out there now.”

“Last night you said you would rather have loved and lost. Did you change your mind so fast?” Zachary said.

“Perhaps. Let me ask you something. If we got together, so soon after you broke up with Eric, and then I left you… Would you not be devastated?”

“That depends on whether I can love you,” the British dragon challenged.

David chuckled.

“That is well answered my friend. The real question, then, is whether we are willing to try.”

Zachary’s first instinct was to say, what did he have to lose. He thought about it though. The pain he felt right now, could he bear to go through that again?

“But you are going back to America,” he mentioned.

David waved it off.

“We are dragons. Surely you have learned that we go where we want?”

“Well, sure, I went to London once, but America?”

“Has it occured to you that I might wish to extend my stay in your town? Keir ek nela tedarl feir eim uva tei laqueel.”

Zachary blinked at the strange tongue, the mess of garbled words.

“What?”

“Have you not learned Rellanic from your parents? I thought all dragons knew it,” David replied.

“I have never heard it before in my life.”

“Oh. My apologies. I was saying that there is little binding me to America. Some friends that I could talk to through the internet, but that is all.”

“Well, I suppose I’m game if you are,” Zachary said. “Do try not to abandon me in a month’s time though.”

“I promise to wait at least two months,” David smirked.

He invited David to his place. Zachary had no idea why he did. He was lonely? He wanted to keep talking without wasting money on overpriced spirits?

It was something that had taken at least two dates for him to do with Eric. They were moving fast, and that spelled disaster for their relationship. If he could even call it a relationship. Two drinks and a life story. Did that count as a date?

Regardless, here they sat on his couch, Zachary’s palms sweaty from nerves.

“Relax. I’m not going to just up and fuck you,” David said. “I have some decency left in me. Unlike my dear father…”

His eyes glanced at the mirror that was visible in the bathroom and he smirked. Zachary’s head swivelled but he couldn’t see anything in the mirror.

“Sorry, I screw with my father a lot. Sort of payback for abandoning me for nearly two centuries.”

“Er… okay?”

Zachary swallowed drily.

“So… if you didn’t want to… have sex, why did you agree to come over?”

“I enjoyed our conversation earlier. I enjoyed talking to you. Do I need more reason than that?”

He supposed not. It was nice to know there were no expectations. He may be a forty-eight year old virgin, but he wasn’t that desperate for sex.

“Okay, tell me more about the dragon I have invited into my home.”

“Let’s see, you know most of my life story… I’m a musician. My instrument of choice is the violin, but I have learned the guitar as well as the piano.”

“Do you know the violin well?”

“I could play Freebird, if I had the mind to. Sadly for some, I do not.”

“Any classical pieces?” Zachary questioned.

“I can show you, if you’d like.”

A violin appeared in David’s hands and Zachary blinked.

“A summoner,” he nodded appreciatively. “I’m more of… well, it’s hard to explain. I’ll show you sometime. But I’d never say no to good music.”

Smiling, David plucked the strings, listening to the notes. Satisfied, he placed the bow to the strings and began playing.

The room filled with the sound of the solo violin, an aria from Vivaldi. Zachary recognised it and enjoyed it. Lilting, intricate, the song flowed up and down in his ears, expertly played. He watched the elf play, David’s eyes closed in concentration. With but a moment's pause, the violinist switched songs, notes from Fingal’s Cave straining from his instrument.

The music stopped, David taking a deep breath.

“It would sound better with better acoustics, but…”

“I liked it,” Zachary smiled. “I always thought it would be fun to play an instrument, but I’d probably be rubbish at it.”

The violin in David’s hand vanished, replaced with a black violin a moment later.

“You never know if you don’t try,” he said, handing the violin to the dragon.

“Really?”

Zachary took the violin from David, setting it against his shoulder as he had seen the elf do.

“A little higher,” David said, lifting the body of the instrument.

Zachary accepted the bow from the dragon, setting it against the string. The violin let out a shriek as he drew the bow across it, and the dragon winced.

“See?” he said, handing the instrument back. “Rubbish.”

“Well, of course. You haven’t learned to play yet. It took me a year to figure out how to get the violin to stop squeaking when I touched it.”

David accepted the instrument. It vanished in his hands as he shrugged.

“If you ever want to try again, let me know.”

“Thanks. That’s closer than I ever thought I’d get to a violin to be honest.”

“I’m glad I could help. But what about you? What do you do for fun?”

Zachary thought for a moment. He really didn’t do anything as cool as playing the violin.

“Just… reading, I guess. I really don’t get out much.”

“What kind of stories do you enjoy reading?”

“Uh… I enjoy Jane Austen…”

“”Hmm. To be honest, I found her work boring. I preferred Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.”

“Really?”

He was surprised. Usually people thought he was nuts for enjoying books as much as he did.

“How do you feel about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?” he questioned.

“Pure gold. That’s what got me started on Twain. I watched the world go through a lot of changes in my life. Honestly that book speaks to me on a personal level,” David replied.

Zachary got a sudden thought.

“Wait… You were alive when he was, weren’t you? Did you ever meet him?”

David shook his head.

“I was… rather preoccupied during that time of my life. I didn’t start reading his stories until near the 1920’s.”

It was amazing, he was talking to someone who had been through two world wars, hell, had probably been alive during the Holy Roman Empire...

“You are like a walking, talking history book…” he said excitedly.

Zachary chuckled in embarrassment, looking down.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be. It’s refreshing to find someone who isn’t scared of my age,” David laughed.

A gentle hand touched Zachary’s chin, lifting it until he was looking into David’s crystal blue eyes. Their lips were suddenly inches away.

“May I?” David whispered.

Silently, heart fluttering, Zachary nodded. This was fast, faster than he had expected. But maybe that was a good thing.

David’s lips pressed softly against his, hand caressing Zachary’s cheek. The kiss was different from Eric’s, slower, gentler. He really needed to stop comparing things to the wolf.

“Does this mean we’re together then?” he asked as they separated.

“I believe so, yes,” David smiled. “Unfortunately, I need to leave for the night. I’m free in three days if you want to meet up again.”

“Okay,” Zachary agreed, standing up with the dragon.

He walked David to the door, the older dragon leaning in for another kiss. It was adorable how he almost seemed to ask permission with his eyes, and Zachary appreciated that David did not just assume he wanted the kiss.

“I want to warn you that I can be a little blind to social cues,” David said quietly. “If I miss something, or you want me to do something, please let me know.”

Zachary nodded.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.

They stood slightly apart, looking at each other quietly.

“I should go,” David said finally.

Zachary nodded, tearing his eyes from the older dragon.

“I’ll see you in three days?” he asked.

“I hope so.”

Placing a small, chaste kiss upon Zachary’s lips, David opened the door and stepped out of the flat. Zachary watched him go, feeling oddly like a giddy schoolgirl. Was this right? It certainly wasn’t advisable to get into a relationship so soon after he had been dumped. Maybe David would just be a rebound. But Zachary didn’t think that was the case. Either way, the green dragon decided he would just enjoy the ride.