[Arashi] Satoshi and the Dragon

[honooko]

[Title] Satoshi and the Dragon
[Author] honooko
[Rating] PG
[Notes] I started writing this fairy tale in July when I had a tangiblewhimsy in my house. She insisted I finish it. So here it is! I hope you enjoy it. ♥

Many years ago, there was a young man named Satoshi. Satoshi lived in a tiny fishing village in a far-away place. He was a baker, but like all the villagers, he also fished. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he baked bread. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, he fished. On Sunday, he rested.

One day, Satoshi began to hear that the fish were nearly gone from their tiny lagoon. Each day, the villagers caught fewer and fewer fish until one day, they caught nothing at all.

"Our water is poisoned," the village elder said. "The fish cannot swim in it. It must be purified; then, the fish will return."

"But how will we purify it?" the villagers asked.

"One of us must go and ask the great Sea Dragon for one of his scales," the elder said. "When we place the scale in the water, it will become pure."

"But grandfather," said one man, "that is a long and perilous journey to the Sea Dragon. Who will go?"

"We shall play 'rock-paper-scissors', and the winner shall go."

So all the villagers, young and old, played rock-paper-scissors. It took hours, but at the very end, the winner was Satoshi. He was not happy; tomorrow was Sunday and he wanted to sleep. But he said, "Alright, I will go."

Satoshi packed his bag with bread, apples and a little dried fish. He also packed his fishing pole and a blanket to sleep on.

"I'm going now," he told the villagers the next morning as he yawned. He began to walk east to the sun.

Satoshi soon realized he walked very slowly. He was also quite thirsty. He came upon a meadow; there were three horses there, drinking from a pool of water. The horses looked up at him when he entered the meadow.

"Hello," he told them, "I'm very thirsty. May I have some of your water?" Two of the horses fled, but a chestnut-brown one with a large dark patch across his left shoulder stayed put, staring at Satoshi with big brown eyes.

"Are you a boy?" the horse asked him.

"Er," Satoshi said. "I'm a man."

"What's that?" the horse replied, his tail flicking to show his confusion.

"Like a boy," Satoshi explained, "only bigger."

"Oh, that's alright then," the horse said. "I'm Aiba. I'm a horse."

"I noticed," Satoshi said politely. "May I have some water?" Aiba ducked his head, guilty.

"This is a magic spring," he said. "One swallow fills you up for one whole day. You have to trade something."

"I have an apple," Satoshi said, "If I give you this apple, may I drink three swallows of water? I'm traveling very far away."

"I like apples," Aiba said, "but that is a big apple. It's worth more than three swallows."

"It's the smallest I have," Satoshi said. "Please take it." Aiba shifted on his hooves uneasily before he got an idea.

"I will come with you on your journey!" he whinnied excitedly.

"Do you know where the Great Sea Dragon lives?" Satoshi asked. "I'm going there."

"I don't know," Aiba admitted, "but you can ride me. I run very fast, and I am young and strong. Every day I drink from this spring, so I don't need water for weeks."

"Alright," Satoshi agreed. "My feet are tired anyway." So he gave Aiba the apple and watched him chomp it up in three bites. Then he knelt at the edge of the spring and drank three big swallows. It was cold, clear, and delicious.

He climbed on Aiba's back, pointing. "The Sea Dragon lives in the east. We're going that way." As Aiba had promised, he was fast. Satoshi told him about his village and the fish. Aiba told him about the spring, and how the animals to the east were magic and spoke as humans did. They rode all day and as night began to fall, they stopped to sleep. Satoshi unrolled his blanket. He ate a bit of bread and gave Aiba another apple. Then he lay down to sleep.

Satoshi dreamed. He was still lying on his blanket, but he became aware of a young man sitting at the foot of his bed. Even sitting, he gave the impression of being tall and long-limbed. There was a dark birthmark across his shoulder that stood out even against the young man's tanned skin. Satoshi felt a cold night breeze blow across them, and Satoshi realized the young man was totally naked. It seemed unimportant; he was dreaming, after all. Wordlessly, he lifted the edge of the blanket, inviting the young man in. The man grinned rakishly and climbed in, tossing his long limbs over Satoshi's body and warming him. He smelled, Satoshi thought faintly before the dream slipped away, like apples.

When he woke up, Aiba was nosing at his head and snorting unhappily. "Get up!" he said, "or we won't know which way is east!" Satoshi grunted and rolled out of bed.

"I had a strange dream," he said, but even as he said the words, the fragments of the dream slipped away. Despite Aiba's best efforts, they lost track of east entirely. Satoshi climbed down, opening his bag and pulling out another apple for Aiba, who was stomping the dirt and feeling sorry for himself. Satoshi then removed a strip of dried fish from his bag to chew on as he thought. He sat down on the ground, trying to think of any other way he could navigate.

"Hopeless," a disdainful voice said near his elbow. "Utterly hopeless." Satoshi looked down and saw and exquisite black cat with slitted green eyes. The cat looked at him as if waiting for an answer.

"Hello," Satoshi said politely. "My name is Satoshi. This is-"

"Wow," said Aiba, shuffling on his hooves excitedly, "you must be a lion, right? You look like a lion."

"Which would make you… an ass?" The cat said primly.

"I'm a horse," Aiba said, not even slightly offended. "My name is Aiba."

"I am Jun, the cat," Jun said, flicking his tail. "Pardon, but is that fish?"

"Yes," Satoshi said. "It's from my village." He stood to get more fish from his bag as he told Jun about their journey and their current predicament. Jun blinked his green eyes in a slow, lazy way.

"You're not going east now," Jun said, winding between Satoshi's ankles, "but if you give me that fish, I can take you east."

"That's very kind of you," Satoshi said, smiling warmly at Jun. Jun's tail stiffened and he said, "No it isn't. I just like fish. It's nothing personal."

"Well, still," Satoshi said. "Can you ride a horse?" Jun looked at Aiba. Aiba looked at Jun. There was brief moment of silence broken with Aiba said in a resigned sort of way, "You're going to use your claws to stay on, aren't you?"

"That's the general plan, yes," Jun said.

"What if I put the blanket on your back? Then Jun can hold on to that instead," Satoshi suggested. Both animals agreed this was a better plan, and soon Jun was settled just in front of Satoshi on his saddle-blanket, chewing on dried fish and occasionally saying things like, "Turn left here-your other left, you ungainly ungulate!" Aiba never seemed terribly annoyed by Jun's directions, and Satoshi thought that riding a horse with a cat was actually pretty funny.

Once again, the sun began to set. They dismounted and ate (an apple for Aiba, fish for Jun, and dry bread for Satoshi.) Satoshi once again rolled out his blanket and fell asleep. Once again, he dreamed.

There were two young men this time. The long-limbed tanned man from the night before was again waiting at Satoshi's feet to be let in. The new young man was pale with jet black hair, and was just as naked as the other. But he wasn't waiting for an invitation; he prowled up Satoshi's body, predation in every smooth roll of his joints, until he was standing over Satoshi on his hands and knees. He lifted one hand to raise Satoshi's chin. Satoshi noticed his sharp, manicured nails. The man bit Satoshi's throat; not hard enough to hurt, just enough to establish power. He soothed away the sting with a dry, rough tongue.

Once again, Satoshi lifted his blanket to invite them in. The apple-smelling man tossed his limbs over Satoshi again. The other man curled on Satoshi's other side, nosing at his hair. He smelled distinctly of fish, but not unpleasantly so. The smell just reminded Satoshi of home.

He woke up when Jun smacked him in the face with a velvety paw. Luckily, he had his claws retracted.

"Do you have more fish?" Jun asked.

"Only a little," Satoshi yawned. "I think we should save it. Can you catch something else to eat today?"

"Yes," Jun sulked. "But I like fish better. Wait here." So Jun stalked off into the underbrush to hunt. Aiba chewed on various plants experimentally. He kept Satoshi up-to-date on the taste.

"This one is very crunchy," Aiba said, then: "This one is very bitter. Yuck." He spat it out.

"Try not to eat anything that might be poisonous," Satoshi said, eyeing a bush full of bright flowers with suspicion.

"Oh, good plan," Aiba said as though it hadn't even occurred to him. He continued grazing, glancing back at Satoshi.

Suddenly, Jun burst out of a bush. His fur was bristling and he was almost spitting with rage.

"Where is he!?" Jun hissed. Satoshi was about to ask who, but Aiba shouted, "Satoshi, your bag is running away!"

Satoshi turned and scooped up his bag. He turned it over, emptying out the contents. Apples, bread, and an entire dead rabbit with a stoat's jaws locked around its throat.

"Mmph!" said the stoat.

"My rabbit!" Jun spat.

"Fwinders-kweepers," the stoat said around the rabbit in his mouth.

"You didn't find it!" Jun yowled. "You stole it from me!"

"Stwealers-kweepers?" the stoat tried with a shrug.

"Would you like some fish?" Satoshi said, hoping to diffuse the situation somewhat.

"I aweady ate your fwish," the stoat confessed without a hint of shame. "This morning when you were asweep." He grinned around the rabbit. "Now I want mweat!"

"My meat!" Jun snarled. "and my fish!"

Suddenly Aiba's front left hoof came down on the stoat's tail. His rear hoof right hoof landed on Jun's. Both animals let out wails. The stoat released the rabbit from his jaws and tried to gnaw at Aiba's foot to get away, but all his teeth found was hard, unfeeling hoof.

"I think," Aiba said brightly, "we should all be friends."

"Me?" the stoat squeaked. "Friends with a donkey and Mr. Hissyfit?"

"I'm a horse," Aiba said patiently.

"I refuse to be friends with a criminal," Jun said.

"Okay then," Satoshi said. "Aiba will just keep standing on you until you can agree to be nice to each other."

"You know he's a weasel, right?" Jun said. "Have you ever met an honest weasel?"

"I'm a stoat," the stoat said, puffing up. "My name is Nino. Stoats are very trustworthy."

"Did you really eat all my fish?" Satoshi asked.

"Er," Nino said. "Yeah. I did do that."

"We needed that food!" Jun hissed. "We're on a journey!"

"Really?" Nino said, looking genuinely remorseful. "That really wasn't enough for three of you anyway, you know."

"I could handle our hunting," Jun said.

"For you, sure," Nino said. "But not the human. He eats more that you. Look how thin he is; he gives you his food."

Aiba released their tails and Jun sat down and swished his back and forth in an irritated way.

"Is that true?" Aiba asked. "Have you been giving us your food?"

"You're my friends," Satoshi shrugged. "You were hungry." There was silence until Nino gave one tiny sniff before declaring, "I'll come with you on your journey. I ate your food; I owe you a debt. So I'll feed the human."

"I'm Satoshi," Satoshi said, holding out his hand, palm-up. Nino looked at it before placing both his little front paws on Satoshi's hand.

"I'll feed Satoshi," said Nino gravely. "I swear it on my stoat's honor."

"Stoats have honor?" Aiba asked curiously.

"Of course!" Nino said. "If we had thumbs, we'd all be samurai!"

So Nino returned Jun's rabbit and caught a small bird for Satoshi. He didn't really want to eat something so small and cute, but he didn't want to offend Nino. He ate it quickly and Nino seemed satisfied. They continued on their journey; Satoshi riding Aiba with Jun perched in front of him. Nino couldn't make up his mind on where he wanted to be; he dove around in Satoshi's bag for a while, then his pants for a while before finally settling in a drape across Satoshi's shoulders.

The sun started to set, and as soon as Satoshi laid out the blanket, Nino burrowed inside. Satoshi only had to nudge him aside a little to get in.

His dream that night had three young men this time; one of them was already wrapped around him, a warm nose tucked under his jaw. For the first time, the men spoke.

"We found him first," the pale man said.

"I found him first," the tan one corrected.

"Either way," the pale one said, annoyed, "this one is usurping."

"I don't mind squeezing in on his side," the tan man said, sliding under the blanket. The pale man said nothing, but he did press a possessive kiss to Satoshi's chin before settling down at his side. Satoshi could feel the new, smaller man that smelled like breadcrumbs smile against his neck.

When he woke up, he found a small bird's nest with four little eggs in it. Nino dragged it over to him, clearly telling Satoshi to eat them. Satoshi swallowed them, but he realized he was thirsty too. It was the fourth day and his magic spring water was gone.

"I'm thirsty," Satoshi said to his merry band of animal friends.

"I looked for water," Nino said, "for fish. But I couldn't find any."

"It's almost a desert out here," Aiba said. "Most of the plants are dry." He stomped on the dry dirt with first one foot than the other, and Nino's ears pricked.

"Hang on," he said, "that one's hollow!" And before anyone could stop him, Nino had dug his way down to a tunnel and darted deep inside.

"I wonder if it will collapse on him," Jun said hopefully.

"Didn't he share that shrew with you this morning?" Aiba said reproachfully. "You should be nicer to him." Jun said nothing, but he did stick his head in the hole curiously. Suddenly, he popped out again.

"There's something in there!" he announced. "Nino is chasing it out!"

"WaitstopIswearIdidn'tknowsomelivedhereOWOWSTOPBITINGMYTAIL!" a voice shrieked, getting louder as it neared the surface. Finally, in a flurry of feathers and fur, Nino and a medium sized bird with a round head popped out.

"Satoshi!" Nino said with delight, "I found a whole chicken for you!"

"I'M AN OWL," the bird squawked indignantly.

"No you're not," said Aiba firmly. "Owls live in trees."

"Trees are very high, you know," the owl informed him. "Terribly unsafe for sleeping. Burrows are much better."

"Unless a stoat lives there," Nino pointed out, "Or a badger. Or a snake. Or a-"

"Alright, not that safe," the owl said. "But still better than a tree!"

"I'm Satoshi," Satoshi said. "This is Aiba, Jun-"

"And the one who thinks you look like dinner is Nino," Jun said. "We're going on a journey to see the Great Sea Dragon."

"And Satoshi really needs some water," Aiba added.

"I'm Sho," the owl said. "I'm a burrowing owl. I know some springs near here, but…"

"But?" Jun said, flicking his tail.

"I have to fly pretty far to get to them," he admitted. "I don't know if you can keep up. It's much too far for a human to walk."

"Satoshi rides me," Aiba said, "and I run very fast. Can you show us the springs please?"

"I'd offer you something," Satoshi said, "but we're almost out of food, and I don't really have anything else."

"Oh, you don't need to give me anything," Sho said, flapping a wing dismissively. "Happy to help. And, you know. To not be eaten." He shot a nervous look at Nino, who was curling innocently around Satoshi's neck again.

Sho was good on his word; the springs were quite far, but with Aiba running and Jun using his keen eyesight to follow Sho's flight, they made good time. Satoshi drank from the spring for a long time, not knowing when he'd have another chance to drink so much. Nino splashed and dove in the water, catching several smaller minnows and depositing them all at Satoshi's side. Satoshi wasn't exactly sure how far they were from the East Sea anymore; he trusted Jun's directional sense, but the Great Sea Dragon could be anywhere from hours to weeks away. And Satoshi knew his village didn't have weeks; they'd starve by then.

"Don't worry," Jun said, appearing at his side and rubbing his soft head against Satoshi's elbow. "We'll find him." Satoshi scratched behind his ears and under his chin, soothed by the cat's calming presence.

"Okay," he said to Jun. "Let's go."

As they traveled, Satoshi could feel something pulling at him. It was a strong power; something old, older than anyone he'd ever known, maybe older than anything could ever be. The further they went east, the more Satoshi's very soul was being dragged in by the power.

As the sun set and they prepared for sleep, Satoshi couldn't eat. He was too nervous, too unsettled by this strange power. He slept, and he dreamed. The same three young men as before were curled around him, speaking in soft whispers, but a fourth voice was there are well, and Satoshi felt as though his head was resting in someone's lap. His hair was being smoothed away from his forehead in a gentle, protective way and the scent of deep, old earth filled his nose.

"Hush," the fourth man said, "sleep now. You'll need your strength, I think." And so Satoshi slept deeply, cradled and warmed on every side.

He woke just as the sun had broken the horizon. In the dim light, he could sense movement; maybe Aiba was standing in between him and the morning light, because he felt like large shapes suddenly got larger. He squinted, holding a hand over his eyes.

"Morning," Nino said, sliding out of his lap with a slippery-smooth grace. "Wait here, I'll find you breakfast."

"No, let's go together," Jun said. "If we can find water, Satoshi will need it." Nino agreed with only a minimal amount of grumping, and they climbed on Aiba's back and set off. This time Nino steered; his nose was slightly better than Jun's. Sho had them all beat on hearing, though.

"Guys," he called down as he flew overheard, "I think I hear a stream!" Nino scrambled up Aiba's neck despite his protests of tiny claws pricking him, head into the wind.

"I can smell it," Nino declared, "but it's salty. It's not a stream, I don't think."

"The sea, maybe?" Satoshi said hopefully.

"Maybe," Nino said. "I smell a little magic too. More than the usual out here, anyway."

Within twenty minutes they crested a hill; the view was endless. As far as anyone could see in any direction was beautiful, sparkling green-blue rippling water. Satoshi held in a breath at the purity of it; all the animals felt tingly along their skin, like an itch they couldn't scratch.

"Magic," Aiba said, his nostrils flaring into the salty breeze that blew across them. "Big magic."

"It stings," Nino complained, scratching at his muzzle before pushing in into Satoshi's shirt. Sho flew a few laps over their heads. He called down to them.

"Are we going?"

Jun looked at Satoshi. This was saltwater; there was no way he could drink it. But every sense he had was screaming that there was something big and strong here, probably the same thing Satoshi was looking for. The Great Sea Dragon was like a god, as far as Jun knew, but that didn't mean anything in terms of his willingness to help a simple human.

In fact, if anything, Jun fully expected the Great Sea Dragon to just swallow Satoshi up in one bite for impudence.

"He's here," Satoshi said, and everyone looked at him with surprise. They hadn't expected him to feel the power too. "I have to go."

"Satoshi," Jun said, "Maybe there's another way."

"No," Satoshi said. "There's no other way. I have to do this, everyone. For my village."

Satoshi climbed off Aiba's back; Aiba followed him a few steps, but Satoshi turned and stopped him. He held out his hands in front of him.

"Please," he said. "I must do this alone. Thank you all for your help, but this is my task now." He bowed deeply, then slide down the sandy path from the ridge they were standing (and flying) over. They watched him grow smaller and smaller as he headed to the edge of the water. Then his tiny shape was simply swallowed by the glimmering light.

Sho landed. He looked at the other three.

"Satoshi," Aiba said. "We have to help him somehow."

"For what?" Nino asked sharply. "When his task is finished, he's going home. And we're… we're going home too."

"I don't really want that," Jun said.

"Me either," Aiba said.

Sho looked across the sea. He shuffled his feathers a bit awkwardly, unsure if his opinion would actually be appreciated. Finally, he just spit in out: "Well, this is the place to be for that."

"Meaning what?" Nino asked.

"Meaning there's one person who can help us all," Sho said. "We just have to ask him."

Everyone looked at the ocean together, in silence.

"Um," Satoshi said, the water lapping at his feet. "Excuse me?" The waves got a bit stronger; they rolled up to his ankles and pulled sand out from under his feet. He felt like the ocean was trying to suck him in, swallow him up.

"I'm looking for the Great Sea Dragon," he continued calmly. "I don't suppose he's in?"

The waves pulled back a great distance before surging towards the shore. Satoshi was knocked backwards; water rushed over his head, into his mouth, into his lungs, and he was drowning; he reached his hands out to the light he could still see through his salt-stung eyes. If he could just reach that light... that far-off light...

He woke up inside a cave. He knew it was a cave, because sunlight shone in an opening in the rocky ceiling. He was waist-deep in water, framed by the sunbeam, and in front of him was-

"I am Gackt, the one they call the Great Sea Dragon," said the dragon. He was huge and glistening in a way that had nothing to do with water. His voice was a low rumble like the crash of waves against a cliffside. His scales changed colors fluidly from dark, iridescent blues to pale, opalescent greens tipped with pearly sea foam. His claws were long and drumming impatiently on a huge boulder he was leaning against. His teeth were as white as a full moon.

"I'm Satoshi," Satoshi said, when he'd found his words again. "I-I need your help."

"Oh?" said Gackt, appearing totally disinterested. "Do you know where you are?"

"A cave?" Satoshi guessed. Gackt grinned, his teeth glinting.

"My cave," Gackt said. "I'm going to eat you, unless you can give me one good reason not to."

Satoshi swallowed. He pondered, briefly. It didn't take him long. Maybe if he'd been a fighter, or a magician himself, he would have needed to strategize longer; but he wasn't. He was just Satoshi the baker, so all he had to do was stand up. Water poured off of him. He faced Gackt straight-on and spoke firmly. His village was counting on him, after all.

"It's my birthday," he said.

"Your-what?" Gackt said, momentarily confused.

"My birthday," Satoshi repeated. "You can't eat me, because it's my birthday. That wouldn't be very nice."

"I... see," Gackt said carefully.

"Also," Satoshi said, "I need one of your scales."

"Why should I give you that?" Gackt said, repelled. "These are magic, you know. I can't just be passing them out."

"It's my birthday, remember?" Satoshi repeated. "So you can give it to me as a birthday present."

The dragon looked him up and down, measuring. Satoshi hoped he wasn't trying to decide if he could eat Satoshi in one bite, or if he'd need two. The feeling did not exactly abate as Gackt grinned hugely, sliding down on his slithery belly in the water and darting forward with much more speed than Satoshi would have expected from something his size. But then Gackt reached one scaly claw across his back and plucked from it a single scale the size of a dinner plate. He handed it to Satoshi, who immediately clutched it to his chest tightly.

"Thank you," Satoshi said, beaming up at the dragon. Gackt patted him awkwardly on the head with one claw, as if he was slightly afraid something slimy might come off the man if he touched him too hard.

"Yes, yes," Gackt said impatiently. "Happy birthday. Now go away." And before Satoshi could even open his mouth for another 'thank you', he woke up on the beach he'd walked to. The water was lapping tamely at his ankles and the sky was dark. Satoshi almost would have thought it all a dream, except the scale was still pressed tightly to his chest. It glowed dimly in the moonlight, reflecting every little flicker that shone in its smooth surface.

It felt warm against his skin, and he smiled.

They hadn't meant to follow Satoshi. At least, not at first. Jun expressed concern over Satoshi's overall lack of directional sense, Aiba suggested they just make sure he found the water okay, and Nino kept bouncing around announcing loudly whenever he found one of Satoshi's footsteps. Sho flew overhead, circling back with increasing frequency and increasing distress as they could not see Satoshi anywhere. When his footprints dead-ended at the edge of the water, the four animals stood in a grim line, staring at the glowing horizon for any sight of their human friend.

"The Dragon didn't really eat him, did he?" Aiba asked. "I mean, we would have probably heard that."

"He might have drowned," Sho said, sounding slightly frantic. He kept hopping forwards as the waves receding, looking for signs of the man, and then flapping frantically back when the tide rolled in again.

"He said he was from a fishing village," Jun reminded them. "Don't you think he knows how to swim?"

"Swimming in a pond is different than swimming out there," said Nino, the only one who had enough experience to weigh in on that matter.

"Guys," Sho said in a wavery tone.

"There are all these currents you can't really see," Nino explained, "and the tides and things-"

"Guys!" Sho squawked.

"Sometimes the sand goes out from under your-" Nino continued until an enormous wave rolled in and swallowed him completely.

"GUYS!" Sho shrieked right before the next wave dragged him under too.

They woke up in the cave. Sho was freezing and sneezing everywhere; he smelled like a wet feather duster. Jun and Nino kept pointedly away from him. Aiba felt sorry for him and kept snuffling at him in an attempt to dry him off. Instead, Sho's feathers were drying in awkwardly-sticky-up shapes.

And then the Great Sea Dragon came.

"Hello, snacks," he greeted them with his booming voice. Everyone shrank a few inches, but Aiba still stepped forward.

"Hello," he said. "I'm Aiba, and this is-"

"I know who you are," the dragon interrupted with a wave of his claws. "Not that it matters. Dinner doesn't need a name."

"If it's all the same, we'd rather ask a favor of you," Jun said primly. "Instead of being eaten."

"I'm getting very tired of granting favors tonight," the dragon grumped.

The moon crested directly over head, its light shining down into the cave. As the waves of light bounced off the water and around the stone, the four animals shifted. All but one got larger; Sho continued to sneeze, although he no longer had wet feathers to weigh him down. Aiba began to rub his upper arms vigorously to help warm him back up.

"...Well, that explains a lot," the dragon said when they'd all transformed. "None of you really smell right, you know."

"Sho smells like chicken, I swear," Nino agreed solemnly.

"Look, we know you're the Great Sea Dragon and everything," Aiba said quickly, "but we have this friend, and we've gotten really close, you know? Like friends, and things. And he's going home soon, but we can't really be like we are and still be his friends, and we certainly can't go back with him, except that when we're like this it would probably be okay, but we're only like this at night so-"

Jun put a hand over Aiba's mouth quite firmly. Aiba made a slightly garbled noise before settling.

"What he means is," Jun clarified, "we'd like to stay like this, always. So we can be with him."

The dragon scratched at his chin. Sho took it as a sign that the dragon was considering their request. Nino thought he had an itchy chin. Finally the dragon slithered down to them and began clacking his claws together in a foreboding fashion.

"I can do what you ask," he said, "but you will each have to pay a heavy price."

"We know," Nino said. "But he's..."

"Worth it," Sho finished for him. The other three nodded their agreement. The dragon smiled. He pointed one claw at Aiba.

"You, the first," he said. "From you, I will take your lungs. You will never run as fast or hard, never breathe as deeply or as strong, and never will you escape a seasons' cold."

"From you, the second," he said, pointing at Jun, "I take your awareness of people. You will never again know what someone is feeling without asking, or know what they need from you. You will never easily understand someone else's heart again."

"From the third," he said to Nino, "I will take time you could have spent with him. You cannot go near water. You will be sick on every boat, be ill near every wave. Every hour he spends fishing is an hour you cannot share with him."

"And from you," he said to Sho, "I take you flight. You will never soar ahead or beyond. You will never scout. You will never be at the top of a tree or edge of a cliff. All heights, even small ones, will cause your body to freeze in terror, leaving you grounded forever.

"If you accept these prices," the dragon said, "then let our deal be sealed."

No one protested. The prices were fair pay for Satoshi.

"Then our covenant is struck," the dragon said. "You will leave my cave as you entered it." And the waves came and swept them all away.

They woke when the sun was already high in the sky. Nino shifted in the sand, itchy as it dried against his bare skin. He sat up, feeling waves washing over his legs, and felt sick. He turned around.

Jun was lurching awkwardly to his feet, having been pinned under Aiba for what must have been half the night. Sho was examining himself inch by inch, never having seen his human form in full light before. Aiba was shading his eyes from the sun, looking across the beach.

Satoshi was standing just out of the reach of the waves, the gleaming scale clutched to his chest. He looked surprised to see them, but much less so than Nino would have expected.

"Satoshi!" Aiba said joyfully, leaping to his feet and throwing himself at the smaller man. "Look, we can come home with you now!"

"If that's alright with you," Sho said.

Satoshi looked at the four of them: Aiba, tanned and long-limbed, warm to the touch like something freshly baked. Jun, pale but sinewy with gentle hands. Nino with his small form that seemed to curve against him with ease. Sho, with his comforting hold and slightly red cheeks, aware of his nakedness in a way the others hadn't yet learned.

"Let's go home," Satoshi said with a big smile.

And so they did. They returned to Satoshi's village; Satoshi himself placed the scale in the lagoon, and within a day all the fish had returned and more. Satoshi moved from his tiny apartment over the bakery to a bigger house closer to the lagoon. He fished and baked; Sho read books and taught the local children to read. Aiba helped him by playing with them whenever they got tired of lessons. Jun helped Satoshi fish sometimes, and Nino kept their house feeling like a home.

They lived happily ever after.