The Dragon Prince's Consort

Thirty-Three

Valen reached for the control panel on the wall and flicked the lights on just as he pulled the door shut, shadows from the street vanishing in an instant under warm yellow lights in the ceiling. They'd walked from the kennel just down the alley after putting Ika down for the night, slipping the night manager a few extra golden kai to buy his silence about the royal couple staying in a cheap room next door, and now Fang dusted snow from Valen's hair and horns as he shed his coat. Thanking her, Valen looked around the space they'd rented for the night. The little room was a cozy one, designed for short stays by travelers without much to carry or the need to cook their meals. Decorated sparsely with basic furniture and generic art, the single room stood quietly among the block of self-serve accommodations insulated against cold and noise. "Nice," he said to Fang. "If I had to go looking for a Dragon Prince, I wouldn't think to start here."

"There are only two reasons people rent these rooms," Fang told him, shaking snow off of her hat, "sleep and privacy."

"Is it just one or the other?" Valen grinned and turned up the heat. He already had ideas for the room tonight, and he wanted Fang to be comfortable. Shedding his bulkier outer robes Valen hung them on wall-hooks and began to undress Fang. They were both still somewhat glazed from all the rounds at the brewery, but that only enhanced the softened, dream-like feel of the late night, the escape from the palace compound, and the residual headiness of being celebrated instead of mocked, of being part of the joy instead of outside it. Valen still couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that the common people liked him, much less appreciated his spending on their trades and goods over the years. I had no idea it made that much of a difference. He couldn't remember how much he'd spent on the earrings Fang wore tonight, but he'd learned that what seemed a small purchase to him was funding the training of a new artisan for the shop that made them. And it's all because of her.

Working the knot that held Fang's belt together, Valen leaned down and kissed the beautiful dark-eyed, fawn-skinned woman who'd captured his Flame and set his hearts ablaze. He loved the smell of her, sweet and warm like teaflower leaves toasted in sugar, the smoothness of her cheeks and forehead so unlike his own pebbled and scaled skin; beyond the lengths that declared her status, he loved the silkiness of her hair and the way it shimmered in the light. He loved how she kissed him back every time, making him feel welcome and wanted; most of all he loved how she accepted him as he was, a dwarf Drass with short hair and no path to the throne, a grown man who still looked like a boy and probably would for most of his life. Through the slight haze of strong spiced whiskey his mind sang I love her, I love her, I love her! Valen took handfuls of her robes and pulled them apart, worrying Fang's lips with his teeth and sucking on them between soft, heated growls.

"Eyah, Valen..." Fang gasped after a particularly deep, hard kiss. "Ashes, are you okay?"

"I have never been better than I am right now."

"You're drunk!" Fang giggled.

"It's not the whiskey, My Lady," Valen took her face in his hands. "It's you. You've completely changed my life – you've changed me. I never would have dreamed of doing half the things I've done since I met you, I never thought I could. I always wanted to be someone else, I never thought I could be what I am now. I–" Fang's bottom lip had begun to tremble, and Valen rubbed a tear from her fair, fawn cheek with his thumb. "Fang? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just... I'm so proud of you. I think you could've done all of this, if anybody had thought to ask you."

Valen's hearts stumbled, and fleetingly he considered telling Fang everything – how he felt about her, what he wanted for her, what he would do for her if only she would ask – but with so much still on the line he knew he couldn't risk it. Instead, he tapped her brow with his and sighed. "Without you, I wouldn't have had a reason to try." Valen rubbed his nose on hers and devolved once more into kissing her, Fang eagerly returning the attention. Each time his gold-plated tusks smoothed over her lips, Valen's tail swept a low arc behind him and his breath caught in his throat. I love you, I love you, what am I going to do without you? With every day, every hour, his time with Fang came closer, ever closer to its end.