Ink and Flowers - 10. Finley

Tony's advice to turn to a brother buzzed around in my brain. I could have thought of it myself, but my relationship with my family wasn't exactly close. Accordingly, there were exactly two names on the list of those I would call at all.

Michael was from the generation before me and was a lawyer, a very successful one and very popular with magical beings. However, I wasn't sure how much room he gave to his own dragon self and to what extent he would actually be able to help me.

Uther was the oldest of my generation and actually the one I was closest to. He was more or less twenty years older than me and had taught me and Bomb many things, such as how to fly or breathe fire in human form. In my childhood he had been more of a father figure to me than our real father, but in recent years we hadn't had much contact. And that made me hesitate to reach out to him.

Chewing on that thought, I scrubbed the large flower vases the next day. Patricia was singing to herself in the sales room and when my phone started vibrating with messages every second, I took a break.

The boys' group chat was once again overflowing and I felt like I couldn't read as quickly as they were writing. It was about the weekend, what else. However, I paused when I read that Emmett would be spending the Saturday night with Dex.

Dex. Deer shifter. Cop. Little brother to Dom, who was actually part of the friend group but who I hadn't met yet. An alpha.

Something gloomy welled up inside me. It wasn't jealousy, but something similar. I couldn't put a name to the feeling, but it felt inappropriate. Real jealousy wasn't my place at all, and anyway- I wasn't even sure exactly where my interest in Emmett lay. Other than wondering what he was, I mean.

But then a private message from Jake popped up.

Jake: All good?

Me: Yeah. Why?

Jake: Just asking.
Jake: I thought you were interested in Emmett. But now that Dex is back, they seem to be picking up where they left off.

A faint frown crept onto my forehead. If they had something going on, Emmett didn't seem to care too much because he'd mentioned Dex barely in a sentence or two before.

Me: Even if I was interested, I don't get involved.

A thumbs-up came from Jake, but the dark rumbling inside me grew stronger, was picked up by my dragon, and echoed strangely inside me.

An image of Emmett riding a majestic stag through the forest appeared in my mind's eye. It was replaced by Emmett with a no less majestic young man in a soft silk bed beneath him.

The growling sensation became a sound escaping my throat while my cheeks grew hot and smoke billowed from my nose. What by all the gods was wrong with me?

My dragon was restless. Wanted to protect Emmett- only from what? From Dex? That was ridiculous. Shaking my head at myself, I put my phone away and turned back to the vases of flowers.

~

I felt like a teenager who was overwhelmed with himself. One moment I wanted to kill Dex. The next, I wanted to shield Emmett from the rest of the world. Then the images in my head aroused me so much that I could barely form a clear thought.

But now that I had followed the latter impulse, it was quiet in my head. My heartbeat calmed down, the sweat - and the other stuff - on my skin dried. I stared at the white ceiling and snorted smoke into the air.

This isn't me, I realized. I'm not like this.

And because this was really bothering me at this moment where I could think completely straight, I picked up my phone from the bedside table and searched for Uther in the list of chats.

For a moment, I chewed on my lower lip, then typed a quick message before throwing the phone on the bed and getting in the shower.

As I stepped back into the bedroom, my phone rang - a video call from Uther. Baffled, I answered, but held the phone so that he couldn't see me - after all, I was naked.

"Hello, Uther," I said, a little stupidly.

"Good evening, little brother," Uther greeted me back. He had a subtle frown on his face. "What's wrong?" Even though he was already over fifty, his human form looked younger than me. Reddish-blond and with dark blue eyes like our mother, lean and tanned, we didn't have much in common.

"Can I get dressed, please? I've just come out of the shower." I still sounded like an idiot and Uther's patronizing gesture didn't make it any better. Putting my phone aside, I asked, "Why a video call?"

"Why not? It's better to talk face to face."

"If you say so..." I returned skeptically and slipped into a T-shirt and shorts.

"So Finley, what's going on? Did father step on your tail?" There was a hint of amusement in Uther's voice.

"No." I wiped away a drop running down from my hair over my cheek and picked the phone back up. "I need your advice."

"Ah." Uther immediately became serious. "What's this about?"

"About me? My dragon. My feelings," I replied - it was almost a helpless stammer. I dropped into a chair at my tiny dining table and leaned my phone against the heavy metal napkin holder.

Uther nodded, scrutinizing me. "Okay. Shoot, I'm all ears."

It took me a while to explain the situation. Uther listened seriously and intently, his index finger repeatedly tapping thoughtfully against his chin. When I had finished and was rubbing my face, strangely exhausted, he exhaled harshly.

"A very basic question first..."

"Hmm?"

"Do you see yourself as... gay?"

Surprised by his cautious tone, I looked up. "Yes. Why?"

"Dragons aren't gay." he began an explanation in the same cautious tone. "Just like dwarves, harpies or the merfolk, dragons don't know any other sexualities."

I raised my brows in amazement. "That's news to me. Seriously. And just look at Bomb and me."

"Yeah..." Uther drawled, "you're becoming more of an anomaly with each passing decade. Dragons don't usually have twins, either, if we start from the very beginning."

I grimaced. "I really don't want to talk about Bomb right now, though. I'm finally rid of that one worry, I've got others now."

He gave a short, artificially amused snort, a thick puff of smoke escaping him, then nodded. "Sure. Okay. Um..." He looked to the side briefly, seeming to think.

I let him take his time and went to get something to drink. When I sat back down, I got a small smile.

"You don't have a hoard yet, right?"

My reply was a curt shake of the head.

"Have you ever felt the urge to hoard and suppressed it?"

I raised a brow in confusion. "You can do that?"

"Yes. So no. Hmm. I guess you're going through puberty."

"Uther, I'm thirty-three. I already had that puberty thing, thanks," I sighed, but he shook his head.

"I mean your dragon. Sometimes the development isn't parallel, especially when the dragon is mighty. And you are mighty."

"Father said I was stronger than Alfred..."

Immediately, Uther nodded eagerly. "Alfred, Yannick, Bomb and you, you're incredibly strong and you all don't have a hoard yet. And Yannick is already fifty. But if you're now going through a second puberty thanks to your dragon..." He left the sentence hanging strangely open.

"And meaning what? I mean," I raised my hands helplessly, "that still doesn't explain why I feel so weird about Emmett, of all people."

Uther swayed his head from side to side thoughtfully.

I sipped my water. Puberty, for real?

"Describe to me again what it was like, please," Uther then asked and I tried a second time to put it all into words. From our first encounter to his reassuring touch the weekend before.

"And I'm repeating myself, but I don't think this has anything to do with dragon puberty," I finally finished.

"Maybe your interest in Emmett was the final push." Uther shrugged his shoulders. "But yeah, things aren't adding up."

"I'm not even sure I'm interested at all," I muttered. As far as that went, I was admittedly confused by myself.

Uther nodded, but didn't seem to be listening anymore.

We sat there in silence for a while and I could see his frown deepening.

"You know what," he suddenly broke the silence, "I'm going to look something up in the library. I've got an idea."

"If you say so..." I tried in vain not to sound too skeptical. Or curious about his idea.

But he didn't really seem to hear it. "Okay. I'll get back to you as soon as I know more."

"Sure..." He hung up and I stared at my phone. Let his words sink in.

My dragon half going through puberty?

Okay. It wasn't completely absurd. But:

Dragons aren't gay.

Did that mean my human part was and my dragon part wasn't?

Just trying to think about the possible consequences of that gave me a headache.