Can't I Fit In Anywhere?

90: Everything Is Fine

I have no excuse.

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Getting nearly tackled into a table wasn't something Ryan enjoyed. Goldy, being herself, seemed to ignore the fact that she nearly toppled both of them into a table for squeezing every ounce or air out of his lungs.

Fiore was lucky. She managed to escape the bone crushing hug, and Ryan swears she looked smug.

He was right; She was going to get along with his friends just fine.

"You're okay!!!" Goldy jumped in place, whilst still hugging him. "You're okay you're okay!!!"

"I'm okay," He agreed. "Please let go."

Something in his voice must have clued Unicorn that he wasn't in a hugging mood, since he quickly pried her off of him. 

Out of the daycare group, Goldy and Tina were the huggers while Ryan and Unicorn would rather not. It was not a fun time around holidays, where the girls would purposefully stake out somewhere to ambush them and hug them to death.

"Ryan!" Before he could look towards the voice, the owner being Lexi, the little air that was left from Goldy's hug was knocked out of his lungs with a well placed punch. 

He wasn't sure whether or not he preferred the hug or the punch, but he did have to gather his breath for a few seconds. Faintly, he heard Petra berate Lexi for the violence, (but really though, has he met his friends?) while Ryan was pretty sure he heard Slade give a small laugh. The traitor.

"You absolute idiot!" She smacked the top of his head. "I swear to god if you do that again I'll-"

"Lexi, babe," Matt seemed to appear from thin air, stopping his murder. Not that he wouldn't fight to live but still, Lexi was scary when she wanted to be. "Please don't kill him," Then the attention went from his attacker to him. "Though you are on thin ice! How many times do you plan on disappearing this year!?"

"Hopefully no more after this." Tina grumbled. "I swear we should get a board to tally the amount up."

Ryan felt Fiore slowly climbing up his back to once again reach his shoulders as Tina's words rolled through the room. 

Thankfully, it seems that she liked them enough to where they could attack him and she wouldn't try and fight them. That was a good thing, since if Lexi didn't kill him, Tina would.

It didn't help that he knew Tina could hide a body and get away with it. Thankfully not from experience, but he knew. They had way too many conversations on how to subtly remove people from existence. 

Ryan winced when he quickly looked at her. Her being pissed was an understatement. Her tail flicked wildly behind her and she glared into his soul. 

"If you do that again I will kill you." She hissed. Literally, which wasn't something Ryan knew she could do. She was part tiger, but it was kinda easy to forget. Though Ryan did know her his entire life, so maybe that was it. "Do you know how worried and scared we-"

He felt a familiar weight on his shoulder settle as Tina's sentence tampered off in what looked to be confusion. "What is that?"

The others gave similar questions, while Goldy just cooed softly at her. "Awww! A lil' baby!"

He didn't have the chance to answer and explain, when a new person appeared through the door.

"Ryan!" Tori's entire body seemed to relax from its tensed up state. What was new however was the bird chirping on her shoulder. He felt bad that he kind of forgot about it. Then again, it has been with Amelia and he tries to stay far away from her as possible.

Unicorn may seem sane at points but Ryan's dealt with him enough to know. Do not get in the way of his science or else.

"Hey Tori!" Finally, someone normal and who wasn't going to try and attack him. He hoped. His friends were chaotic like that.
Then, Ryan felt the change then saw it. 

 Fiore seemed to perk up first. Ears suddenly alert as a long and happy growl erupted from her. Before Ryan could figure out what was going on, she flung herself off him, wings poofed out (albeit crooked) towards Tori.

Tori, being the angel she was, seemed to not question the whole dragon thing (like several people's exclamations suggested), and quickly reached out and caught the little demon.

One thing Ryan learned not to test was Tori's reflexes. She had god-like reflexes and it was best not to test them.

Which proved to be correct, since Tori ended up holding Fiore like a rather feisty cat. At arm's length, hand underneath the front legs.
Unlike a feisty cat, Fiore ended up just cooing and chirping at her, tail wagging lightly.

"Ryan," She spoke carefully, testing the words before she spoke them. "What the hell?"

Slade seemed to copy the sentence, if the mouthed words he caught were true.

"That's a dragon." Matt blinked. "That is a literal dragon."

"Aw!" Unlike his other dumbstruck friends, Tina just gave a small grin. "They're so cute!" Her grin turned more into a smirk "Congratulations Tori! You're a mother now!"

No, his face was not red and neither was Tori's thank you very much.

Thankfully, Lexi jammed her elbow into Tina's stomach, rendering her speech as she regained sense of normalcy.

"Ya…" Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a long story, but uh, she either chose me as a parent or heat source. I'm thinking it's both at the moment."

"Oh," Tori blinked down at Fiore. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Its either why did you bring her- not that I'm complaining-" Matt interjected. "Or why are you her parent?"

"Let's go with both." Tina groaned, as she rubbed her stomach. "Thanks a lot. That's going to bruise tomorrow."

"What's her name!?" Goldy chirped. "You tend to name things quickly, so what is it?"

"Fiore."

"Cute name…" Tori was still holding her like a cat. "But why did she yeet herself at me and  does she eat birds?"

Ryan remembered a certain sentence out of the book he read and definitely did not feel his face get red. 'A new hatchling could easily point out who the mother is based off the residing scent off of the father.'

"...she doesn't eat birds." He managed to choke out. "Mostly fish."

Tori relaxed instantly, holding the dragon like it was a dog. "She's cute, but you didn't answer why she jumped at me?"

"...I don't know?" He was met with several unimpressed looks.

"I'd rather not say?" He changed the answer.

"Anyways!" Petra cleared his throat. "It's late, and we all can talk tomorrow morning. Considering the fact Unicorn already fell asleep-" A quick glance showed that Unicorn fell asleep at the table. "We all should be heading to bed."

They all gave reluctant agreements. It was late, and after a few days of sleep worse than usual, Ryan might actually get a good night's sleep. 

"Now that we're all in agreement," Petra looked at Slade and Ryan. "I want you two earlier than usual. Some...things cropped up."

Ryan frowned when he noticed Tori wince. He wondered what that was all about.

He nodded, feeling a yawn creep up. Whatever it was, it couldn't be that bad.

(Somewhere, a box of matches rested near a few dozen containers of gasoline as a dark being laughed to himself.)