What's in a name?

[Kinley Sima]

"Yeah?"

He asked out of habit, then remembered that Dragon hardly knew enough words to answer him. Only yes or no questions would work with him and even then, there was no telling how much he actually understood. Remembering the situation with the pants and the misunderstanding surrounding them, he was going to guess that at the moment, Dragon's understanding of his language wasn't enough to understand half of what he said. So he settled for forcing himself to get up off the ground along with Dragon, recognizing the urgency in his voice.

"We gotta get out of here," he said, agreeing with the tone. "Wolves like to hunt in packs, right?" Not expecting an answer, he answered himself," Right."

First he looked as far as he could down the stream, then the other way, the way the wolf had come from. Then he tugged Dragon along with him in that direction. But as they moved, he noticed that Dragon walked unsteadily--the hard rocks beneath them probably were impeding his progress. Looking back again, as if expecting the dark lump that used to be a wolf would be gone (it was still there), he quickly crouched and patted himself on the back.

"Come on. Get on." Kinda funny, actually, a human telling a dragon to hitch a ride on his back when it should've been the other way around.

[Dragon]

The going was rough but Dragon persisted, especially since now there was real and actual danger. The female earlier? Nothing compared to a wild animal! Dragon nearly slipped a few times on the glistening pebbles and mud near the creek's edge, hurting his feet on more jagged pieces of stone, but he doggedly kept on going, hoping that he wasn't holding them up, praying that the wolf didn't have friends.

"Huh?"

He stopped short as Kinley stopped suddenly and went into a low crouch. Dragon didn't know what he wanted until he patted his back. He stared. "No Kiney!" Carry him? Get on his back? Dragon was mortified. Was he that slow? Could Kinley run faster without him holding them up? Dragon looked over his back but no shadowy figures were in hot pursuit--yet.

Then, another sharp crack rent the air and he jumped. He jumped and nearly cannoned into Kinley, and had to scramble to stay upright. No time to be proud now! Dragon leapt onto him, hugging him close and burying his face against the side of Kinley's neck briefly. "Kiney..." He wanted to apologize, to say that he was sorry for being useless in this form, but... he didn't have the words--only the contrite tone.

[Kinley Sima]

"Yes! Just do it!"

His heart nearly beat straight out of his chest at the sound of what might have been a gunshot somewhere behind them. Was somebody really killing wolves out here right now? If they were, they seemed not to care much if they hit a couple of innocent guys hanging out in the area. So close to the school, too. Was he going to have to tell his mother about this? No way would she let Kero keep attending a school where somebody could shoot a kid on accident. Then again... this was during the night... and further into the woods than most kids would ever be at this time of night, at that.

Still, he didn't like the idea of people with firearms any more than he liked the idea of a pack of wolves finding them and hunting them down.

"It's okay," he said softly, turning his head toward Dragon's cheek. He doubted most people would want to take a ride on his back, let alone a dragon that probably normally... er. Well, not knowing where Dragon came from or how he lived before this (did he always live in a card, for example?), Kinley couldn't say if he was pulling Dragon into the mud. For some weird reason, he also felt the need to brush his lips against Dragon's ear. An awkward place to leave a kiss but it already happened before he could think about it. With his face starting to heat up, he started again, this time at a faster pace despite the added weight.

"It's somewhere around here, I think," he murmured, mostly to himself. The stream--if it was the one he thought it was--ran beneath a small footbridge that he used to cross everyday when he walked home from school.

[Dragon]

Dragon made a soft noise in the back of his throat as his ear was kissed; that used to be a little-known weakness of his, in his other form. No time for that now, though, as they streaked along the side of the stream. Kinley was much stronger than he looked, honestly. Dragon didn't know if he qualified as heavy but it seemed like Kinley moved even faster while carrying a double load.

It wasn't long before they came across a little bridge, and Dragon pointed excitedly to it if only because it offered a way to cross over to the other side. Hopefully, a side without animals or frightening sharp sounds. The woods had fallen silent again, save for the rustle of leaves and Kinley's breathing.

Dragon tried not to jiggle around too much. He also tried not to throttle Kinley, while holding on tightly--a feat in and of itself, since he didn't know how much pressure was too much. Not knowing how to cheer Kinley on either, Dragon leaned in to imitate what Kinley did earlier and kissed him on what felt like the side of the head.

[Kinley Sima]

Mostly, he was spurred on by the thought that something was ever present somewhere behind them. That and the fact that things were looking familiar. Once they crossed this bridge, they'd be in the thinner part of the forest and there would be a dirt road and... and... and there it was! Kinley let out a sound of relief, almost wanting to drop to the ground and kiss it like an overdramatic kid who'd seen it one too many times in a Disney movie. He didn't, of course. Not with Dragon still clinging onto him.

Somewhere, back where they'd come, he heard one last sound. A howl. Forlorn. Did it sound lonely? Sad? Was it calling other wolves? Kinley shivered. At least they were no longer in the heart of those woods. In his relief, he turned toward Dragon with a smile--only to have a kiss land somewhere pretty close to the corner of his mouth. Whoa. He felt his face warming up again. He's probably just doing it because I did it. It wasn't like it meant anything.

"We're almost there," he said, in hushed tones, just in case something followed them out of the woods.

The dirt road lay before him. It wound through various farms. Past the trees they sold for Christmas, past the berries--raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries. Fear no longer gripped his chest, although he was breathing a little heavier now that the adrenaline was draining from him and he was starting to feel the wear and tear of carrying somebody on his back for so long.

Kinley's family lived on an old, renovated ranch. There were a few chickens, all in their coop, and a small vegetable garden his mother maintained more for enjoyment than sustenance. And... much to Kinley's chagrin, there was a police car sitting outside the house, alongside his father's shiny black pickup truck. Kinley stopped, hoping to get a look inside, but all the curtains had been closed for the evening and the door was firmly closed. He knew they looked like a mess, with their hair in disarray, with a bloodied arm and scraped up limbs. Kinley looked down at Dragon's torn up arm and he swallowed hard. Instead of heading into the house, he took Dragon into the barn his mother turned into a workshop and office, where they sat down to do homework or taxes.

Flicking on the lights and closing the door behind them, he finally set Dragon down on the office chair by the desk. He peered down at Dragon's arm, now that he could get a better look at it. Turning his arm over carefully, he let out a breath.

"It looks pretty bad, Dragon. It might need..." He winced. "...stitches."

He reached over to grab a container of alcohol wipes. "This'll probably sting but it'll help. Okay?"

[Dragon]

Oops, missed. Dragon blinked as his lips connected with the side of Kinley's face and hoped that the message at least got across, even if the positioning was all wrong. Well, it was hard to see, anyway, and with the way he bounced around on Kinley's back, it was a wonder he didn't stick his lips in Kinley's eye or down his ear.

At least they got out of the woods, though! Dragon let out a happy shout as the trees thinned, and soon they were out in the open and away from the terror of the forest. He took one last look back over his shoulder. Nothing, except the cry of an animal that sounded, to him, mournful. Maybe it had come across the body of the one that had mysteriously died. Maybe that was its mate...

But Dragon couldn't feel too badly for it, since the first wolf had genuinely intended to harm them. He couldn't feel sorry for something that wanted to bite and tear at Kinley, no sir! (Even if it got him instead, making his arm throb and burn miserably.)

Instead of setting him down, Kinley continued to carry Dragon along and Dragon was afraid to wiggle too much for fear of sending them both face-first into the ground. A structure loomed up, light spilling out from behind curtained windows and door. Dragon studied it, hoping that they could enter (he wanted to see what the inside was like) but instead Kinley took him into an adjacent building.

"Kiney?" Dragon's head was on a swivel as he looked around. These objects were foreign to him and he wondered what each of them did. The thing he was sitting on, that was... for sitting on. But what separated its function from the thing beside him, which also had a flat top? Could that thing also be sat on? While he was distracted, Kinley returned with a cylinder.

"Ah--no Kiney. No," Dragon pushed at his hand. He didn't need the cylinder. "No," he repeated, firmly, and then began to shrug off the cloth that sat on his body. Dragon winced as it scraped across the bite marks, but eventually he got it off. The ink was already flowing down from his shoulder, the dragon winding and curling around his arm. Once it reached the bite marks, the ink seeped into the holes and filled them in, and before long the dragon was moving back up his arm again, leaving the skin smooth and whole.

Dragon looked sadly at the scrapes and bruises on Kinley. He could do this for himself but he couldn't do it for Kinley. Tenderly he touched Kinley's knee, above where there was a deep scrape. "Kiney..." Dragon stroked the area, petting it as though he could take away the injury.

[Kinley Sima]

"But..." He opened the wipes, but before he could insist on using one, Dragon was peeling off Kinley's jacket. The jacket was pretty much ruined at that point, what with the tears and blood all over it. The jacket mattered very little when he saw Dragon's wound, though. Biting his lower lip, he grasped a wipe and he was even going to try and clean it--but...

"Aiya! ]Magic!" He dropped the wipe he was holding. Not... not what he expected! He should have thought about that, though. Magic. He was a magic dragon. Just like that, the wounds on his arm were wiped away and all that was left was a healed arm. Kinley even ran his hand over his arm in wonder, half in disbelief. But nothing but smooth human skin met his fingertips. Just like that, he healed himself. He smiled, but before anything else could be spoken, Dragon was touching the scrape on Kinley's knee. Now it was Kinley who winced slightly.

Half of him thought Dragon was going to heal it, too. He didn't and the tone in his voice sounded almost wistful, like he wished that he could.

"It's okay," Kinley said with a lop-sided smile. "It's just a scratch."

He stepped on the wipe that landed on the ground, then lifted his leg so he could peel it off and toss it into the small garbage bin under the desk. Since he didn't have extraordinary healing powers, he was just going to have to do things the old fashioned way. He pulled a new wipe out and applied it to his dirty wound, letting out a low hiss of pain.

"Stings..." He laughed through it, though, if only to reassure Dragon he was going to be okay. While he ran it over his leg, he contemplated Dragon, then reached out to try and smooth his hair down. If they looked like normal people, then they wouldn't have such a problem with the cops. "Dragon... You need a proper name, though."

[Dragon]

Dragon sighed. He wished that he could heal Kinley too, especially as Kinley winced and then hissed in pain. Dragon half-slid off his seat, foolishly holding out a hand, his own heart aching at Kinley's discomfort. But ah--he was brave and he even smiled, albeit crookedly, filling Dragon with admiration. Dragon frowned and looked down at his hands. Useless hands on a useless body that could do nothing to protect Kinley or even himself.

Looking up at the use of his name, Dragon craned his head into Kinley's touch. He reached up to hold his hand--the one doing things to his hair. "Kiney?" The ink--the living tattoo--moved down his shoulder again, ending at his fingertips, where they met Kinley's skin. But the ink could go no further than that; it pooled, curled, swirled. All of him wanted to touch Kinley, both his physical human body and the dragon that was his other half.

(Sorry short, gotta wooooork)

[Kinley Sima]

"Yeah?"

He asked it again--habit. He looked up, though, expecting something. He didn't know what. At first, words. Then some kind of visual explanation. Dragon did his best in relaying whatever he felt, that he wanted to heal Kinley but he was unable to. Kinley saw him attempt to, saw that the marking of the dragon didn't reach beyond the body it was already attached to. Kinley shook his head and lightly patted Dragon on the hand.

"It's fine. Just scratches."

He scraped up his hand, too, so he wiped it with a slight cringe before looking down at the blood smeared all over his pants. That wasn't from him, though. That was from when Dragon had been injured. Now he was good as new but they definitely still looked like they had been through hell and back. After a moment, he reached up and tried to smooth out his own hair, too. There wasn't much he could do about the state of their clothes but they could at least look like they hadn't rolled all over kingdom come before showing up.

"We have to go inside sometime," he said, mostly to himself. He didn't want to keep worrying his parents or Kero... Hopefully Kero was home by now. Instead of going inside, though, he perched on the edge of the desk. After everything that happened, he wanted nothing more than to flop into his bed and sleep for 12 hours straight. His parents definitely weren't letting that happen. After Kaiden, they were super on the ball about everything--they didn't want what happened to him to happen to Kinley or Kero next.

"Are you hungry?" he asked Dragon. Then made an eating motion. "Thirsty?"

[Dragon]

Nodding, Dragon pulled his hand away. The ink crept back up his arm, sluggishly--disappointed that it couldn't help Kinley. While Kinley perched on the flat surface--aha! So it was suitable for sitting on!--Dragon sank back down in the chair. He rested an arm against the edge of the table beside him and laid his head down on the arm, resting, finally coming down from their ordeal earlier.

Only his eyes swerved up to look at Kinley when he spoke again, then made a scooping motion towards his mouth. Dragon frowned. They needed a better way to communicate! This was getting irritating. He was normally so expressive, and being hindered by the language barrier was utterly frustrating.

Instead of responding, Dragon lifted his head and looked around. He saw a stack of paper nearby and his eyes lit up. "Ah!" Reaching for the topmost one, he laid it flat on the table. The ink slid down his arm, to his fingertip, and then transferred onto the page; he traced the paper, drawing a figure--a sinuous, long dragon. "Dragon," he said, looking up at Kinley. That was him. The dragon on the paper began to move too, shifting, changing into a human shape.

Dragon moved his finger to another part of the paper and drew another human figure. The two humans came together--himself and Kinley--and ran to the edge of the page where trees blossomed and sprang, depicting them running into the woods. If they couldn't speak to one another, they could draw!

Dragon reached for Kinley's hand and moved it down to the paper. An inky dot appeared where Kinley's fingertip touched the paper, waiting to be crafted into a shape.

[Kinley Sima]

"I can't--" he started to say but even as he spoke, there was ink on the page, from his finger. He knew that Dragon was responsible for the improved artwork but somehow, it was different when it was coming straight from his finger to the page. Not even knowing if Dragon would understand what it meant even if he saw it in artwork form--how did dragons eat? And what did they eat?--Kinley attempted to show Dragon what he meant by his question. When he thought of eating, he naturally thought of people at a table, so that was what appeared, two people around a table, eating.

But how did that translate for Dragon?

Kinley looked up, cocking his head slightly to the side. Did dragons even get hungry? All Kinley knew about dragons hinged on fairy tales, which didn't paint them in the best light. But there were also good dragons, like luck dragons. Personally, he thought his dragon had marked a moment of fortune in his life. Not in money but definitely it felt like things looked up since he'd arrived. Appeared.

There were so many more questions he was dying to ask. Who drew him? Did he draw himself onto the card? Was he sealed on the card and how did he come out of it? And why? But for the moment, he kept it simple. Food. Water.

[Dragon]

Hmm... two humans sitting at a table, bringing things to their mouths. Dragon studied the little drawing for a long minute, brows furrowed in concentration. He and Kinley were at a table similar to the one in the drawing... but they weren't putting things to their mouths with sticks. Or what appeared to be sticks, anyway, that the inky people were using to poke at the table before bringing it to their mouths.

"Hmmmm... no." Whatever that was, Dragon didn't want it.

He passed a hand over the people at the table, dissolving the ink to make way for a figure--Dragon--laying curled up. Rest. Sleep. Dragon was tired and he wanted to lay his head somewhere. With Kinley? ...maybe. He wanted to curl up with Kinley. Another figure joined the first; they were twined together, in each other's arms.

Dragon lifted his head to study Kinley, noting how tired he looked, how roughed up despite his attempts to smooth down his hair. "Kiney. Dragon." He pointed to the figures on the page, then at Kinley and himself.

[Kinley Sima]

Although Dragon seemed to give it thought, apparently food wasn't appetizing to him. Kinley wouldn't say he was hungry at the moment, either. They just ran for their lives. He might have been thirsty. But most of all, he was tired. Dragon's thoughts seemed to be in the same place and Kinley started to nod, mostly to himself since Dragon was looking down at the page as he drew. Then the lone sleeping figure was followed by another one and Kinley rubbed the back of his neck. The two figures weren't doing anything other than lying together.

"I get it," he said with a tired half smile as he reached out to take Dragon's hand in his to lower it.

The office/workshop wasn't a place to sleep, though. It was full of nothing but hard surfaces and uncomfortable chairs. The most comfortable thing in the room was the office chair Dragon currently occupied and it was definitely not big enough for the both of them, let alone for them to sleep on it. Letting out a sigh, Kinley stretched a leg out in front of him, looking down at the torn up jeans and the mostly clotted scrape wound.

"We have to go inside," he said. "And answer a bunch of questions."

But he agreed--all he wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep for a while. Too bad his bedroom was on the second floor. While Kinley did occasionally sneak out to hang out with his friends, that was done on his own and not with somebody who could barely walk straight, let alone climb up through a window. They could try breaking in through the laundry room and sneaking upstairs... Tempting though it was, he knew he had to just bite the bullet and go home. He made himself stand, tugging gently on Dragon's hand.

"Come on..."

[Dragon]

Ah, Kinley understood. His tired smile mirrored Dragon's. Turning his hand, he held on to Kinley and studied the paper; the image was fading away since they no longer supplied ink to keep it around. What he wouldn't have given to find a nice, soft spot to curl up in with Kinley. Back home, Dragon's nest was comfortable. He would wind around and around, nestling himself into it--alone.

Not being the biggest or the most powerful of his kind, Dragon wasn't looked upon favorably by females. He was a runt, the smallest and weakest of his family. While his brothers and sisters grew up to be powerful, mighty beasts, he stayed small. There wasn't much of a future for him, until he was drawn into another dimension and put to use. He didn't know what the master had planned for him, but he was happy to be useful to someone.

He was glad, though, that Kinley picked him up. Just about anyone could have laid hands on the card but fate chose Kinley, and here they were. Dragon shifted to be closer to Kinley, questioning the pull on his hand with a bemused noise. He stood up and stepped closer to Kinley. Were they going somewhere? Somewhere safe, to sleep?

"Kiney..." Dragon's hand tightened in his. He remembered the feel of Kinley's lips on his ear--it tickled a little but it felt good. It felt like a gesture of affection, of comfort. Dragon knew that Kinley was worried--it showed on his face. There was reluctance there too, and the kind of weariness that ran bone-deep. Now it was Kinley who needed comforting, he thought. After a mild deliberation, Dragon leaned in. He missed the first time, so hopefully the second attempt went better.

[Kinley Sima]

His mom was going to kill him. She was probably going to be livid that he worried her. By now, she probably got some kind of crazy story about sex (whoops) and lies and some crazy naked guy and the woods. It didn't help that the woods had some hunter guy in it, apparently shooting angry wolves. They could have been shot, too! Although now he saw why Dragon might have wanted to play protector... he could heal himself. Still! One--Kinley didn't know that at the time. And two--he still couldn't imagine leaving somebody in danger while he ran off. He might be a lot of things but he was first and foremost, a stubborn and willful brat. His mom always said as much as he grew up.

Kaiden used to be the protector in the family, before he got mixed up in what was probably cult business. Then he disappeared and left Kinley to pick up the slack. It gave him a chip on his shoulder and only exacerbated the need to do something when the situation presented itself.

"Hm?" He got the feeling maybe Dragon didn't want to go. Maybe he knew what was in store. Kinley looked back at him, not sure how he was going to deal with it but certain he wasn't going to let the authorities haul him off. He'd just say something like... he was an exchange student and friend who was supposed to stay over or something. Dance class. Something. He didn't know--he was tired.

His gaze followed Dragon as he leaned in. Oh. Before he could turn his head, lips brushed his ear. Kinley didn't fully understand why he kissed his ear, though. Was it because he didn't turn his head all the way in time? Or was it because of his weird kiss earlier, in the dark? He didn't know what possessed him to do it but he raised his free hand to Dragon's face to gently move his head so that they were face to face.

"Kiss." His fingertips brushed Dragon's lips before he slipped his hand along his jaw and leaned in to kiss him properly.