Drakkon

Chapter Seventeen

I was tense, staring up at the ceiling while Meilin slept next to me. Meilin had fallen asleep as quick as ever after telling me that he was going to protect me. I had been lying stiffly at the edge of the bed, trying to fall asleep but knowing it was impossible since the breathing and fuming Dragon was sleeping next to me. I kept my distance from him and made sure that we didn't accidentally touch each other. It was hard for me to fall asleep.

After what felt like forever, Meilin stirred and sat upright in bed. I froze and turned my head to watch as he yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes.

Had he been planning on napping, not actually sleeping?

I must've made a small noise because he turned his head sharply to me. "You're awake," he noted flatly.

"Y-Yes."

"I told you I would protect you," he said in a clipped tone. "I'm not going to kill you in your sleep."

I slowly sat up and licked my lips nervously. "That's not—"

"Hmm." He shrugged and rubbed the side of his head, weaving his fingers through his thick straight hair. "I have to go—"

"Y-Your Majesty," I managed to say once I mustered all my courage. "I wanted to . . . to ask you s-something."

"What is it?" he asked casually as he sat crisscrossed on the bed. He rolled his eyes, a hint of amusement, malice, and darkness within his ebony tinted eyes. "Are you going to lecture me about death once more?"

I flinched back at his words. "N-No."

"Hmm. So what is it?"

"I-I . . . " Although what he did was wrong, there was a part of me that had moved on from that. I couldn't focus on the way he thought since I didn't know his life yet. Like Atreus had said, I needed to understand his life before I could judge him.

"Well?"

"U-Um." I twiddled my fingers together and nibbled on my lower lip. Our argument before his brief nap had left me more confused about him and his personality than before, adding more complexities to him. "I want to know more about your life."

"My life?" His brows came together and he watched me with an obscure expression. "Ok, what do you want to know?"

"I don't know; I just want to know . . . something."

Something that would make him feel more human to me, something that would change my image of him. I wanted to see him in another light and as much as he scared me, I didn't want him to be scary to me. I didn't want to feel like this around him.

I didn't want to think of the Dragon as a terrifying, fuming, monster.

He leaned back on his elbows as he half-sat half-laid on the bed, watching me with a neutral expression. "Ask me something. I don't know what to say."

"Um." I thought for a moment before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "What was your favorite food growing up?"

Meilin frowned and thought for a moment, clearly caught off guard with the random question. "My mother's rice pudding. I would eat it a lot as a child. We couldn't afford to buy ingredients for it, so whenever there was leftovers meant to be thrown away, she would bring it to me."

"Leftovers? Was your mother a cook somewhere?"

"Yes, she would cook for other people," he answered, absentmindedly brushing back his black hair. "I also liked drinking honeyed milk. Honey is expensive so she only bought a little bit on my birthday. I like honeyed anything, really."