Lecherous

I'm Just a little Unwell

It was the creaking and dipping of the mattress that woke him. He should've been startled out of formless dreams by his familiar's phone blaring " Carry On Wayward Son" at six a.m.
Archie yawned and blinked sleepily,what an unearthly hour to be conscious - or even worse, actively preparing for work.
But Douxie had to be there at seven exactly,not a minute sooner or later ,in order to get the store ready for customers before its opening time of eight.
Personally,he believed "they "  (the latest faceless ghost- employers of his wizard , sharing that same vague appellation he gave them all ) , could grant Douxie the luxury of an extra half - hour's much - needed rest.
Surely,the store could be fit to serve customers within a shorter space of time?
It was quite unsympathetic to weary him like this; sadly,the boy had rarely been blessed with more human  overseers.
Or maybe he was fussing too much. Douxie could handle this.
He could have handled this familiar schedule,this same old routine,the everyday tiring labour and long dull / difficult hours and early rising and inhuman bosses and uncaring/ unreasonable / entitled patrons ... before Zoe.
Before she'd been ripped away from him ,and held hostage in a far worse place than his place of employment.
He'd also been seperated from Nari,and Merlin,and could not just visit them sometime.
The dragon worried it might all be too much. The wizard was skipping breakfast , battling sleeplessness/ vivid nightmares, crying in the bathroom, insisting he was fine when he was not.
They would save Zoe ,not long from now,and then he'd recover.
"Douxie?"
The bathroom was too quiet.
His ear twisted towards the door.
A concerning silence.
The hybrid feline jumped off the cozy double bed and switched forms, flying up and pulling the door wide open by its handle.
He darted in.
Douxie startled, a heart- wrenching sob escaping him .
He was sitting on the floor , jacket lying rumpled,shoes and socks missing from his bare feet.
Hair unbrushed, purple bags under hopeless eyes.Face bloodless and peaky,tears running down his bony cheeks.
In fact,he looked like a cross between Edward Scissorhands and Victor Van Dort.
In his lap lay the phone. Blinky's voice was speaking :" Merlin is antipathetic towards phones, Douxie,he won't talk to you using one .And he can't afford to waste magic on a projection, he's currently hunting a man - eating cervitaur. Or,he was; now he's reorganizing my library without my permission. I'm afraid he refuses to communicate with you on your device , he likely thinks it will bite him ,the glork..."
Damn him,why must he fail as a father yet again?! Hadn't he damaged the boy enough?
He was ever blind and deaf to Douxie's emotional needs, always had been ,regardless of claiming to love him .
Archie caught sight of a shiny thing in Douxie's hand.
He came closer . It was a ring.
Eyes of lemon - curd yellow met ochre - gold . Blinky's voice waffled on as background noise.
The ring was made of a minute band of white gold,with a skull - shaped pink morganite-stone set in it. It was beautiful,and it had surely taken months and months to pay off. He couldn't possibly guess its price.
" Zoe and I were supposed to hunt niffins a -and get burgers,that night," the boy wizard hiccuped, distraught.
" And I was ...was ... going to s - surprise her wi - wi - with dessert. Her f- favorite kind of ice cream. A - a - and then,we...I... "
He couldn't say anything more. Instead,he held up the ring .Archie suffered an awful pang in his heart .
" She would have said yes," the cat muttered quietly. " She loved you. She loves you, and we cannot give up yet . We will rescue her,and then , you can have that night you wished you'd had."
He gazed at the ring,then at the phone. Realizing that Douxie must've discovered the ring after misplacing and forgetting about it. In his desperation for comfort,he wasted his time trying to talk to his father and find solace, reassurance,
guidance.
Merlin never gave the first two unless he felt like he should / wanted to,this being far too seldom. Whether he could help it or not,he was a proper knobhead .

(Of course, his affection - and affirmation -starved waif would loyally state that Merlin ,in truth, could not help it.)

'He's Merlin' was not a good enough excuse for this dragon anymore. There would be no further excuses.
Archie assumed his cat - shape,stood on his hind legs,and walked off holding the phone between his front paws.  In the kitchen ,he shapeshifted into Skrael and yelled at the screen:" Merlin, we have your apprentice!
Let's negotiate. "
A minute passed. Merlin ,for the first time ever,was heard on the other side of the phone.
" Release him now, you unholy imp,or I will personally-"
" Merlin, it's me, it's Archie, calm down. "
" What sort of antics are you wasting my precious time with, Archibald? I have no time for this nonsense, the mouthy bookworm is convinced that keeping his tomes organized so arbitrarily is good reason to argue with me like a petulant child ,thus hindering my mission to stop that accursed cervitaur from-"
" I don't give a wyvern's bottom, you heartless narcissist. Talk to your son.Or you will lose him. Not in body,but in everything that makes him Douxie,the very boy you say you love. He will crack,and shatter,and who knows if anybody will be able to put him back together again ."