“Is that what you were working on when I arrived?” Justin’s rough voice made him shiver. “What a life you must lead when I’m not around.”
Edgar swallowed. “I never do anything, you know that.”
“So, no other dragons have been to see you?” Justin wasn’t smiling. “No one leading you out to any rose bushes?”
“A few.” Edgar shrugged. “My mother will not give up.” Well, she would have if Edgar honestly hadn’t felt the need to find fall in love or find a playmate, but that obviously wasn’t the case. She just wouldn’t recognize the impossibility of what he wanted. Edgar had no treasure. He might as well have been human. “She wants me taken care of, and happy. She doesn’t understand what I want, but she means well. Anyway, I am not much good with first impressions, am I?”
“I barely remember a time when I didn’t know you.” Justin flicked his gaze to one of the high windows. “But I feel as though I’ve met you many times.”
He meant the stories. He had to mean the stories. Edgar’s heart kicked against his ribs in panic. Edgar had gotten careless in the telling if Justin had finally noticed what each of them had become. As children, Edgar had given him adventures about pirates in space and a samurai Robin Hood. That had changed with age. But Justin had never uttered a single word about Robin Hood in love with Marian, blind to the devotion of Will Scarlet, or the bold space captain who fascinated his helpless captive.
“How boring for you,” Edgar said tightly. He was grateful he was a weak dragon, or the room would have been shaking.
“I’ve never met a version of you I didn’t like.” Justin was too kind with him. He had so much to give in response to Edgar’s need that Edgar was almost ashamed. Justin kept his attention on the stained-glass window depicting a rampant red dragon. “If you tell me other dragons didn’t also find you charming, you’ll be lying, Ras, and you know it. You’ve had a potential suitor or two up here recently, or so I’ve heard.” Edgar didn’t know where he could have heard that from except Aiden, which meant Aiden was a double-agent. Which… of course, he was. That was entirely in character for him if he felt it was just. Though why Aiden would report details of Edgar’s boring life back to Justin made little sense. But Edgar did not get a chance to ask. “So—” Justin finally tore his gaze from red glass “—there’s really no one?”
Now, Edgar had to turn away. “Never,” he admitted, and for a moment, the world was silent. He hurried on. “Why should there be? I scare some of them. I’m picky, and soft, and… and I have no treasure.”
Justin’s gaze was intent on Edgar before he shook himself and gestured eloquently around Edgar’s lair. “You have your stories, Ras. You always have. Tell me another one? Or finish the last one properly. Tell it the way you’d normally tell it.”
That was impossible now. Edgar fought the urge to hide his face. “You didn’t really drive an hour just to hear my silly stories, Justin.”
“They aren’t silly.” Justin ground out the words, his tone almost furious. “Even the ones you told as a child were never silly. There is too much in them for that. They are only silly in the sense that human fairy tales seem outlandish if you don’t recognize the truth in them. Every version you spin out is something real and possible, because you have seen it in all your greatness. You see people, even fictional people, and you understand them enough that you can change the details and still know what path they will take.”
“Stop,” Edgar begged quietly without a trace of pride. As an oracle, he was formidable. As a dragon, he was lacking. “I’m a collector of stories.”
“Are you kidding?” Justin paused, probably to scent the air. “You’re not!” His voice was getting truly rough. “Edgar Erasmus, how can you see everything but not this?”
“Shush.” Edgar gave in and put his hands to his cheeks. “Since adulthood, each time you see me you ask for another story as if we were children again. I do not mind, you know that.” He loved it. “But you don’t have to do it to amuse me.” In fact, now it would only make Edgar desire him more, but he left that unsaid.
The silence made him finally look back. Justin regarded him steadily, pointedly.
Because Justin didn’t have to do anything. If he asked, it must please him to do it.
Edgar licked cocoa from his lips and detected hints of Justin’s smoky impatience. “You find the stories relaxing?” he guessed, far too timidly. He did not close his eyes. He hadn’t once ever allowed himself to dream of why Justin indulged him in this particular way. Possible futures always included the one that would be, and Edgar wasn’t bold enough to look at that.
“You could always read something,” he suggested a moment later, only to despair when Justin, naturally, reached for the yaoi manga on the top of the stack on the arm of the touch. He flipped it open, then raised his eyebrows. “They’re in love!” Edgar’s voice was high.
Justin turned another page. “Is this what had you excited when I got here?” he wondered without looking up. He darted out his tongue to wet his bottom lip—or to remind Edgar of whatever Justin had smelled when Justin had walked into his lair.
“No.” Edgar could lie. He wasn’t a fairy. He wasn’t forbidden to by some rule of being a seer. But his untouched state was hardly a secret. “I was writing. Not one ofmine. Fanfiction,” he muttered that word. “I know it’s ridiculous, especially coming from me. What do I know of love scenes?”
The yaoi manga was closed and placed back atop its pile.
Justin turned toward Edgar. It put Justin even closer, although he was still on the middle cushion.
Edgar’s hands were no longer hiding his blush, if they ever had. He tried a quick smile, as if it was all amusing. “No other dragons for me.”
Justin did not smile in return. “You always say that.” He swept a long, slow look over Edgar, while the space between them grew hot enough to make Edgar’s skin prickle. “So,” Justin was nearly growling, “you could find a human, then. A dragon’s boy, as you suggested.”
“I don’t want a boy!” Edgar told him honestly. “If anything—” He stopped himself there, but Justin wasn’t the sort of dragon to let that go.
“If anything—what?” Justin pressed. “What is it you want, Ras? Tell me.”
Edgar trusted him, but held back. Then, against his will, his eyes dipped closed, just for a moment, and heknewthat Justin would never tease him for this, not in any version of their story. He looked over. “Justin, do you… do you ever think how it would feel to be treasured like that?”
Justin was utterly still. “What do you mean?” he asked slowly. “You’ve always said you didn’t want a dragon. That life with another dragon was not in your future. You have said that very firmly since you were sixteen and I was eighteen, and your parents began to talk about eventually introducing you to dragons your age.” Justin’s dark eyes flared with golden embers. “Youinsisted, Edgar. You said you didn’t want another dragon. Since then you have not chosen one, not once, apparently not even as a playmate.”
“You...” Edgar trailed off to silence at the realization that Justin was angry with him.
