Dragon Slayer

Ten

By the next afternoon, they had arrived in a small town.
Eijirou recognized it the moment it came into his sights.
"We're here!" He took off into a run that Katsuki somehow managed to keep up with.
"Slow down!" The blond shouted. "You're too fast!"
"This is home!" Eijirou slowed to a slight jog.
"Don't dragons live in caves and ruins and shit?" Katsuki asked, confused.
"I live above a tavern." Eijirou explained.
"Seriously? No cave?"
"Normal dragons sleep in caves." The redhead stated.
"Why do they do that?"
"Well, their human forms are harder to transform into, kinda like my dragon form is. So if they fell asleep somewhere small and ran out of magical energy in the night, they'd revert back and cause big problems."
"Wait...dragons have human forms?"
"Yeah. You didn't know?"
"I didn't. No."
"I guess it's not really common knowledge." Eijirou shrugged. "But, hey, I can show you my horde."
"Now that I know it's nothing cool like bones or some shit, I'm less excited about seeing it." Katsuki sighed. Eijirou laughed.
"We're here." He stopped outside the tavern. Music could be heard from the inside.
"Seems like a shithole." Katsuki muttered. Eijirou knew by now that this was how he complemented things.
He pushed open the door and was greeted by two familiar faces.
"Ei!" Denki greeted them from the bar. Kyouka looked up from her lute. "You brought a friend."
"We're not friends." Katsuki insisted.
"Eijirou!?" Sero came down the tavern stairs from his own room. "We heard a dragon was captured near the castle and we were so worried!"
"I got caught but Katsuki saved me."
"Katsuki?! THE Katsuki?" Mina poked her head out from behind the bar where she had probably been drinking.
"Yes...that Katsuki..."
"You're telling people about me?"
"It was a cute story from my childhood..."
"Cute?"
Eijirou laughed. "Yeah. Let's go up to my room." He took Katsuki by the wrist and lead him up the stairs before his friends could tease him more.
"Wear protection, you two!" Mina called after them.
"Protection hasn't been invented yet!" Eijirou called back.
"Does she think we're going to spar or something?" Katsuki asked.
"Uh...yeah..."
"In your bedroom?"
"Uh...yep. In my bedroom." Eijirou tried to hide how red his face was.
"You alright?"
"Huh? Yep. I'm alright."
"You look feverish..."
"You're imagining things." Eijirou insisted, waving his hand as if he was brushing the questions away.
"Let's go to your room. You need to lie down."
"I'm not sick..."
"You sure? You could have the plague."
Eijirou laughed. "I'm fine, dude."
"Which room is yours?" Katski asked.
"Uh...the one at the end." There were a few doors down this hallway. Each of them lead to one of his friends rooms.
Katsuki pulled Eijirou along, pushing into his room. He halted when he saw what was inside.
"You weren't kidding. That's a lot of books."
The entire room was mostly books. They covered his bed and desk and every bit of his floor save a pathway toward the bed.
"Yeah." Eijirou blushed again, rubbing the back of his neck.
"What do you even do with them if you can't read?"
"I don't know...they smell nice..."
"You're crazy. The least you could do is tidy these things up."
"I've been meaning to but I always take them out to try and read them..."
"How's that going for you?"
"Hah. Not good."
"I'll see if I can get anything through that thick skull of yours after I clean this place up."
"I'll help..."
"No. You lie down. You're sick." Katsuki commanded.
"I'm not really sick. I'm just-" Eijirou was interrupted when Katsuki pushed him down on an empty spot of the bed, pulling his cape over him. Eijirou couldn't figure out why his heart was beating so fast.
"Fine. I'll rest." He caved. "But you're teaching me to read as soon as I wake up, got it?"
Katsuki laughed. "Yeah. I got it."