museboxofmuses | DRAGON AU

DRAGON AU

Prometheus hibernated a lot.

There wasn't much else to do, as a hermit-dragon. He couldn't venture out into the world in case some intrepid 'adventurer' wanted to slay him for bragging rights or his hide, he couldn't mingle with other dragons because he was one of Nidhogg's brood (a fact which was why he couldn't socialise with any Ishgardians because spears inevitably got involved in those conversations, he knew, he still had the scar on his hindquarters from his last naive attempt), and he knew absolutely no one else, knew nothing about the world or its new continents or civilisations, so hibernating it was.

But even then, sleeping got dull.

Prometheus sighed deeply, drawing his wings tighter about himself. Perhaps it was because he spent so much time sleeping, but his draconic body evolved to have furred wings - which was nice, it was very warm, even if they did shed some strange, fluffy black motes from time to time (he soon learned that these motes were highly toxic to mortals, probably from his subconscious desire to be left alone slipping into this body's maturing evolution). The downy undercoat of his wings was shed often and thickly enough that he even had a little nest, in a cave warmed by geothermic means, in the high mountains of Coethas. It was cosy, safe, and isolated.

It was also boring and devoid of anything. Prometheus came here... fuck, centuries? Or millennia? He couldn't remember. A long while, just after the war between Ishgard and the dragons kicked off in earnest. He flew here as a dragonnet, and slept and slept and slept, with miserable waking moments in between where he went to stretch his wings, eat a bear or something, and crawled back in his warm, soft cave to sleep some more.

He was avoiding reality, he knew. He didn't understand why he woke up in the form of a dragon - an alien species, not native to their star, how the hell did the reincarnation cycle mess up that badly!? - what happened to Amaurot, why the geography was completely different and... where Hades and Hythlodaeus were. He remembered, in the early days of his life, he would cry out through the Lifestream to hear nothing back, and was slowly accepting that, maybe, it was just him. Alone.

No Hades. No Hythlodaeus. Just him and his cave.

He exhaled heavily, flexing his claws as his body sluggishly roused from its latest bout of hibernation. His stomach was an empty pit of starvation, so he had to eat something calorie dense before dozing back off again. The only thing was, it took ages for his body to fully 'wake up'. Spending centuries practically in a coma made his limbs lock up, and it took a while for the aether flowing through his body to regain strength and feeling in them again. Not that he was in any rush...

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Aza startled in Hades grasp, and he instinctively held him tighter. His teeth were quite sharp, and just left a bit of grazing at the site. “He’s just curious, isn’t he?” Hades conjured a soft but durable teething ring and offered it.

I mean, it looked like he had all of his teeth anyway... But it had the benefit of being really cute, too. “Just slept? Huh. Well. I can’t say that I’ll mind that one bit. I’ll design a nice bed... and a crib? I wonder when he’ll be able to fly...”

Hades found it curious that with Aza in his hands, all his troubles seemed so very far away. “... I want him to have an agemate. Not that I’d ever let him get lonely... But children tire of their parents, too.”

Aza's attention was immediately snatched by the teething ring, and burbling happily past his purrs, the dragonnet clutched at the teething ring between his paws, gnawing at it with his thick, heavy tail flicking energetically. Looked like he was going to be busy with that for a while yet.

"An agemate...? Well, hm, I mean," Prometheus slyly looked Hythlodaeus's way, "Hyth was technically 'born' only a few weeks before Aza..."

Hythlodaeus coughed, "I don't think that's what he means, Prom."

"Well, I'm not having another kid anytime soon," Prometheus huffed, "Do you know how uncomfortable carrying that egg was? Ugh, it was terrible. I felt like I was constipated the whole time."

Hades huffed, keeping his attention on little Aza as he spoke. “So much for bearing a little discomfort with dignity, eh? Well if you won’t, then I will. And what’s more, you haven’t taken human form in months now...”

Hades produced the necklace, holding it between his finger and thumb. It looked a little absurd in his now much larger hand. “I miss kissing you. I miss your hands and your face. Don’t you miss your human hobbies? Or has your draconic palette excluded you from wanting a baked treat? When was the last time you even read a book?”

"Hrrm..."

Prometheus could admit he missed those things. Hell, he missed his fucking workshop, and being able to conduct all the experiments that crossed his mind on a whim - but he had no Creation magic, and it upset and frustrated him too much to be confronted with the fact that his main hobby was no longer within his reach. It was much easier to hide in the skin of another creature and blame it on being an entirely different species that way.

"I can't Create as a human," he muttered, but he reached out with his clawed wing, taking the necklace, "But fine, if you insist..."

He dropped the necklace over his head, and with a small puff of aether and magic, Prometheus the human stood there. He was the same size as Hythlodaeus, so he did have to crane his head back to look up at Hades.

"...I feel like a child," he grumped.

“You could if you let me awaken your power. But you already turned that down,” Hades said as he put a hand on his hip. “But fine, give me but a moment.” He placed Aza in the nest, and Aza barely seemed to notice, so enamored with his first toy as he was.

Hades stepped back into a swirl of dark aether, disappearing completely. Moments later, he rematerialized in his Solus costume, sitting on the edge of the nest. The thick, purple aether dispersed as he looked back into the nest. Unthinkingly, he forgot to swap the hair color in his haste to appease Prom.

“Well now, Aza looks much bigger like this doesn’t he?”

Indeed, compared to a human, Aza was about the same size as a rather large dog. He was still portable, but one would have to expend considerable amount of effort to cart the dragonnet about in their arms.

"Big enough to flatten any of us if he decides to jump on us for a hug," Prometheus sighed, leaning over to grab a lock of Hades's hair, "Oh, I like that you've kept this. Pale hair always suited you better..."

He rubbed his thumb over the hair, admitting he did miss this. As a dragon, there wasn't much touching like this - just nuzzling and, well, fucking, really. Prometheus let go of the hair, straightening up and looking down at himself. Huh, he thought he felt a draft.

"I'm naked," he observed.

Hades merely stared at Prom’s face for several moments, taking it in like a parched man at a fountain. This close, he couldn’t resist kissing him, gently and chastely. It took a moment for his words to reach him.

“Hm? Oh, sorry,” he snapped his fingers to turn the rest of his hair white. “I’d forgotten...”

Hades glanced down. Ah yes. Hades stifled a laugh as he bowed his head and snapped his fingers, dressing Prometheus in something he probably wouldn’t pick on his own, but was very flattering on his form. He turned to Hythlodaeus and snapped his fingers again, dispelling the Au Ra glamour and redressing him.

Hades pulled Prometheus against him in a hug to just admire Aza. “I wonder how he’ll look as a human all considering...”

...okay, maybe Prom missed the kissing and hugging too.

He leaned against Hades, humming quietly as he fidgeted with his clothes. Of course Hades picked clothes that would accentuate his curves...

"He'll probably look like you, considering you're actually the human here," he mused, watching as Aza 'fought' the teething ring, which consisted of the dragonnet tossing it into the air, then batting at it with clumsy, flailing strikes until he overbalanced and flopped onto his belly, or his back, or his side, whereupon he'd struggle to get up again. He seemed to be having fun, considering how his soul was bright and fluttering with pure enjoyment.

"I have a feeling he's gonna be a troublemaker, though," Prometheus mused, watching Aza toss the teething ring up... and deftly snatching it out of the air. The dragonnet let out an outraged squeak, and Prometheus smiled as he held it over his lap, coaxing Aza to clamber up onto it. Which... might've been a mistake considering how heavy he was, oof.

Hades paused. He technically did have a child who looked like him. His grandson looked nothing like him but his great-grandson... but. Well. He’d thoroughly destroyed that relationship, hadn’t he? He didn’t claim to know Zenos very well, though. He must have just turned twenty-one. “Hmm. I suppose he does have an agemate, after a fashion...”

Hades laughed as Aza spread his weight out over the both of them. “I can hardly imagine how big he’s going to get,” Hades mused. “But that won’t be for thousands of years.”

Prometheus considered that, as he resigned himself to losing all blood flow to his legs with Aza's heavy weight crushing his lap. Beside him, Hythlodaeus took a seat, 'kindly' letting Aza's much lighter tail rest over his lap.

"Nidhogg, my sire, had been trying very hard to breed gigantic dragons like Vishap," he mused, "So, that trait does run in our blood. It's possible he might grow absolutely huge, like, the size of the administration building huge."

“In a fairly short generation, then,” Hades said with a hum. “I’m not sure where we would keep him in that event. Though at that size, I suppose he would be keeping us instead.” Hades ran his hands through Aza’s fur, marveling at the softness. He coaxed him to lay on his side to even the weight out somewhat.

Prometheus didn’t take the bait about an agemate. Did he have to do all the dramatic reveals all by himself around here?

“Since I have so few secrets left,” he lied. “I have a great-grandsire who is only about twenty years old now. Though I think he’s stationed overseas.”

"I kind of suspected," Prometheus said honestly, not looking up from where he was digging his fingers into Aza's plush fur. It was incredibly thick - maybe Prometheus's prolonged stay in a frigid climate prompted his offspring to counteract that. Dragons were insanely skilled in subconsciously adjusting their genetics for spontaneous and dramatic mutations in single generations.

"The age your son died, meant he was at a breeding age," he continued, "With how humans are... I'd be surprised if he didn't have children. Since we haven't been introduced, that means you've either abandoned them, or you're hiding them from me for fear of me getting jealous, right?"

“The man they knew me as has already died,” Hades replied. “I spent eighty-eight years as a mortal before the body fell apart entirely. I had a poor relationship with my grandson. It’s no reason, but my son’s death... I withdrew. I knew he would die, too, sooner or later.” Hades leaned forward to bury his face in Aza’s fur.

“So, abandoning after a fashion, but I doubt they miss me. They are probably angry about the not-naming-an-heir thing, though. ... But I think I did give my grandson a complex. There’s this whole business with some clones...”

Prometheus stared at him.

"Hades... what the fuck," he blurted, "Should I even trust you to be alone with Aza at this rate?"

He meant it jokingly but, kind of not jokingly too. Geeze! Did Hades decide to design a family after a Xeroran soap opera? He did remember the last season of 'Our Father Is a Homunculus' having a clone plotline of some sort...

Hades lifted his head and stared back. He had said too much. He had grown too careless in his euphoria. His soul bloomed with anxious, angry panic— and then shut off entirely. He had forgotten that Prometheus treasured these broken souls.

Hades’ soul leaked out, hot and possessive, guarded as he eyed Prometheus. “It was all for this. Everything I’ve done was for this moment.” Well. Not exactly. But what was Amaurot but the people he loved?

“I would never, never betray you, Aza, or Hythlodaeus.” Unlike you, he didn’t say.

Hythlodaeus cautiously leaned into view when Prometheus drew himself up dangerously, "Um, guys...?"

"I never said you would," Prometheus said tersely, ignoring Hythlodaeus, itching to rip off his necklace. He felt vulnerable sitting in this human skin, without his scales and draconic magic to protect him, which was alarming, because why should he feel physically threatened by Hades? He shouldn't, and yet, when faced with that unpleasantly familiar bubbling of possessiveness and anger from Hades, something in his soul quivered and cowered, a spark of fear, anticipating... something. It was like a snatch of a rubbed out, forgotten memory that left a bruising impression, even if nothing detailed remained.

("You are ill, Prometheus, and He will heal you-")

"But you're not really making your case of being a family man, what with traumatising your human family to complete dysfunction," Prometheus continued, covering up his anxiety with bravado, "I mean, you... they're still your children!"

"Guys," Hythlodaeus tried again, when Aza started to pick up on the tension and anxiety, and sat up a little on Hades's and Prometheus's lap with a soft, distressed noise, "Aza's listening..."

Right. Aza. Aza was a peculiar newborn. He had to be careful about what he said here.

Hades squeezed his eyes shut, taking breaths to calm himself and his aether. After he opened them he drew his hands slowly through Aza’s fur and reconsidered his tone and his words. He had a do-over with Prometheus, a chance of a lifetime. Several lifetimes. Was he really tough to fuck it up being flippant and dramatic?

“We will discuss this later,” Hades said softly. “And I will make any amends that I can.”

Prometheus opened his mouth to push the issue - only to grunt when Hythlodaeus roughly stomped on his toes. He shot the man a glare, but relented when Hythlodaeus firmly shook his head. Right. Fighting in front of the kid would probably give him some kind of dysfunction.

"...fine," he muttered, "Later."

He patted Aza's hindquarters, and after a moment, their child lied back down again, though not without giving them both suspicious looks, like he expected them to start yelling again. Prometheus distracted him by catching his hindpaw, squishing the bright pink toebeans there, tiny claws sliding out from the pressure.

"Aw, look at these cute paws," he crooned, smiling when Aza giggled and squirmed. Ticklish.

Hades gave Aza a small, nervous look before he briefly leveled his gaze at Hythlodaeus . New fatherhood seemed to always make him much stupider. He had to be careful.

“Very cute. I think you gave birth to a cat, somehow,” Hades replied, looking at the aforementioned paw pads and claws. “I know dragons are such aether dense creatures that they change shape naturally and easily, but...”

Hades prodded Aza’s dense soul to check in on him. “But I wonder where this came from.”

"I have no clue. Maybe some forgotten bloodline in Nidhogg's brood...?" Prometheus mused, flexing Aza's rear leg. There was quite a bit of mobility there, and Aza seemed to take to a low walk - he didn't fully stand on his legs, almost crawling on his belly like a stalking cat, and at the moment, Prometheus wasn't sure if that was his natural way of walking, or just because he was a newborn and didn't yet have the strength to walk properly.

As Prometheus did a discreet physical, checking limb function and musculature, Aza squeaked at Hades's prod, looking up at him in surprise. His soul was bubbly and fuzzy, fluctuating and mercurial as any Amaurotine child's would be: very impressionable and swift to adapt, though, perhaps Aza was a little more adaptable than most, thanks to the rapid mutating genetics of his dragon heritage. It wasn't unheard of for dragons to go through several forms throughout their lives. Prometheus, after all, started off as a wyvern and ended up 'growing' his front legs, shifting his wings more to his back.

"He looks nothing like either of us," Prometheus concluded, frowning, "Well, he's bulky for a dragon, like me, I suppose, but..."

“He has my eyes. Your current form has none,” Hades said with a small shrug. “I haven’t decided if it would have been odder if an Amaurotine infant hatched out of that egg.”

Hades could talk and think about agemates later. Wasn’t it good enough to just... enjoy the birth of his first son with Prometheus? Thank goodness that they had Hythlodaeus to keep them at bay.

“Isn’t that right, Azeyma? We had no idea how you might have hatched!” Hades took his head into his hands to gaze into Aza’s eyes. He placed a kiss on the end of his snout and smiled.

Prometheus imagined the absolute hilarity of a baby hatching out of an egg, and sniggered quietly, "Stars, that would've been weird as hell..."

Aza went a little cross-eyed when Hades leant in and kissed his snout, sticking his tongue in a blep as he blinked a few times. Then, deciding he quite liked that, burbled demandingly and pawed at Hades's cheeks, his tail flicking up and smacking against Hythlodaeus's stomach.

"Ow," Hythlodaeus said blandly.

“And then we would still have to figure if it wanted meat or milk...”

Oh no, so cute...

Hades chuckled warmly, taking his paws in hand to administer more snout kisses. The kiss itself was nothing extraordinary, but figured that it might be how brightly his soul glowed whenever he gave his son affection. He paid Hythlodaeus no mind, locked in his world where it was just him and little Azeyma. He kissed each of his little paw pads and pressed his forehead against his snout.

Prometheus and Hythlodaeus watched as Hades pepped Azeyma with soft, little kisses, the dragonnet shamelessly soaking up the affection like a fluffy sponge. At some point, Aza returned the gestures by licking Hades's nose and forehead, squeaking and churring loudly.

"Well, looks like we're just chopped liver," Prometheus commented wryly, "We're pretty much like potted plants now, Hyth."

"A pity," Hythlodaeus said, holding Prometheus's tail so it would stop smacking him in the belly, "We should just elope together then."

Hades rolled his eyes as he hugged Aza, having pulled him more fully into his lap. “Well if either of you want to hatch out of an egg I’ll give you my undivided attention. Though I suppose now is as good of a time as any for us to move somewhere a bit more permanent, hmm?”

Hades glanced at Hythlodaeus. “I dare you to elope. You’ll be giving Prometheus back by the end of the week.” He joked but he wanted neither of them to go anywhere at all. “...Stay awhile. I’ll build us the house that we were never allowed to have in Amaurot.”

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