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forest-hashira · 7 hours ago

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Noble Blood - Chapter Twelve

...well. i'm back. sorry for the long wait between chapters, i really didn't think there would be such a long break, but burnout + the holidays kicked my ass, so. y'know. but we're getting back on track! this is a shorter, more transitional chapter, but i'm hoping you guys can enjoy this nonetheless 💜

fic masterlist | read on ao3 | wc: ~4.3k | cw: gn reader, minor inner turmoil for reader, some harassment towards the end, kento's dad coming to the rescue

Your new life wanted you awake too early for your liking. Despite the fact that there was already sunlight shining through your window when you woke up, signaling that it was later than you usually slept, you felt like you could sleep for hours more and still be tired when you woke up. Just as you were beginning to consider the merits of rolling over and going back to sleep, your stomach made an almost horrifying growling noise.

Food first, then.

From her spot beside you on the bed, Takara grumbled softly, lifting her head and blinking at you, as if asking what you were doing and why you had woken her up. You offered her a small, apologetic smile and stroked the top of her head lightly with a finger.

“Sorry,” you said quietly. “We slept in a lot already, and we both need to eat. Let’s see if mom and dad saved us any breakfast.” You sat up, scooped her up carefully, then scooted your way off the bed, trying your best not to jostle her too badly. Despite your best efforts, she grumbled at you again, and once you were on your feet, she crawled onto your shoulder, draping herself around your neck with a huff, bumping your ear with her nose in the process.

Her actions made you smile, and once she was settled, you opened your bedroom door and stepped out. Your parents were sitting in the main room, in front of the fireplace, and when you stepped out of your room, all eyes were on you: your parents, who both smiled at you; Spark, who lifted his head from your mother’s lap; and Sparrow, who hopped gracefully off the mantle and made her way over to you, clearly the most curious about the new dragon in the house.

“Good morning,” your father greeted softly. “We decided to let you sleep in, since you don’t have lessons today.”

“Thank you,” you said, though your words were interrupted by a yawn as you made your way over to join them. They easily made space for you between them, where you settled with ease, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. “I’m still tired, though.”

“I’m sure you are,” he murmured, pressing a light kiss to the top of your head. Before anyone could say anything else, your stomach decided to repeat its absolutely inhuman noise from earlier.

“I’ll make you some breakfast,” your father said with a smile, ruffling your hair playfully. “Stay here with your mother, I’ll bring you your food when it’s done.”

You nodded, thanking him again as he walked to the kitchen to make you something to eat. Assuming that his dragon would follow him out of the room as she usually did, you were surprised to feel Sparrow’s feet on your leg as she tried to get closer to Takara. Your hatchling wasn’t very fond of her space being invaded, apparently, and she chittered at her in warning. When Sparrow didn’t seem to heed the warning, still trying to get as close as possible, Takara snapped at her. She didn’t make contact or draw blood, but it was enough to have your father’s dragon huffing and trotting off to the kitchen as you called a small apology after her.

Spark – presumably just as curious about Takara as Sparrow was, but having the good sense not to bother the hatchling – leaned a bit closer to you and sniffed the air, then rested his head back in your mother’s lap. You smiled at him, reaching over and stroking his nose lightly for a moment. It still felt a bit surreal to be in your own home, rather than still being at the gojo estate like you had been for the past week, but it was nice; you’d missed your bed, your parents, and their dragons more than you would’ve been able to imagine just a few weeks ago, but you knew now you’d never take them for granted again.

“Did you sleep well?” your mother asked, reaching over and righting a few wayward strands of hair.

“Yes,” you answered, covering your mouth as you yawned yet again. “Yesterday was exhausting. I feel like I could go back to bed right now and sleep all day.”

She gave a small chuckle at your words. “Well, the good thing is that school hasn’t started again yet, so you still have some time to rest, if you really do want to spend the day catching up on sleep.”

“Speaking of school,” your father chimed in, coming back into the room with a plate of eggs and warm buttered bread for you, Sparrow perched on his shoulder. “Have you decided what you want to do about your academic studies going forward?”

“What do you mean?” You accepted the plate and chopsticks he offered you, your features pinched with confusion; you were still only half awake, and you couldn’t quite puzzle out what he was referring to.

“You asked Gojo-sama for time to decide whether you wanted to start attending academic lessons with Satoru-kun and Suguru-kun, remember?” your mother reminded you.

“Oh,” you murmured. “Yeah. I remember now.” For a few moments, you said nothing, thinking over your options as you ate the breakfast your father had made and offering your hatchling a few bites of your eggs. You’d gone back and forth for the last few days, weighing the pros and cons of each option, though what it really boiled down to was your friends; did you want to have more time to spend with the rest of your friend group – and potentially still be harassed by your less savory classmates – or would you rather have more time with Satoru and Suguru. In your heart, the answer had always been obvious, but you’d still hesitated, still walked through every reason you could think of for both options.

“I want to have my school lessons with Satoru and Suguru, too,” you said eventually, swallowing a mouthful of bread. Though you would never admit it to anyone else, you felt desperate for any amount of time you could spend with the boys, because ever since Suguru had arrived three years before and he and Satoru had started training together, you’d felt like they were slipping away from you – Satoru especially. The more the gap between you seemed to grow, and the closer the boys grew to each other, the more worried you got that you would never be able to catch up with them again, that they would slip away from you entirely. You didn’t know what you’d do if you lost your best friend to someone else, so any opportunity you had to keep him close, you were going to take.

There was a small part of you that felt guilty for that line of thinking, because Suguru was also your friend, and you knew he had a good heart, and that he never set out to hurt you or to try and “steal” Satoru from you, but deep down you were still terrified of Suguru replacing you as Satoru’s best friend. They’d been nothing but wonderful friends to you for the week you’d stayed at the estate, but you’d noticed every little moment and exchange between them that seemed almost like a second, silent language they’d developed in the three years they’d been living, studying, and training together; a language that was entirely foreign to you, but that you wanted desperately to learn, too.

“Alright then,” your father said, smiling reassuringly down at you. “We’ll get that settled with Gojo-sama later today, and when school begins again in a few days, you can start attending their classes with them.”

You nodded, a bit of tension bleeding from your shoulders at his support for your decision; not that you’d expected your parents to be upset with you, of course, but because it helped you feel like you really had made a good choice. You thanked him softly, then finished your breakfast in silence.

By the time you’d finished eating, you were leaning against your mother more than just a little bit, and your eyelids were growing heavy with sleep once again. You rubbed your eyes as you fought back a yawn, and Takara shifted in her position draped around your neck. She chittered softly by your ear, and if you weren’t mistaken, she sounded just as tired as you were.

“Do the two of you want to go lay back down for a bit?” your mother asked, a soft, affectionate look in her eyes.

“Yes please,” you said around a yawn.

“Go ahead,” she encouraged. “We’ll wake you again in a bit for lunch.”

Mumbling a small thanks, you pushed yourself up from your spot on the floor, easily letting your father take your breakfast dishes from you before you made your way back to your bedroom. You shut the door behind you, then set Takara on your pillow for a moment while you fiddled with your curtains, wanting to block out as much daylight as you could. Once you were satisfied, you crawled back into your bed, and you were asleep again practically the moment your head hit your pillow

A few hours later, you woke to your mother brushing your hair from your eyes and gently calling your name. She was smiling down at you, perched lightly on the edge of your bed as she roused you.

“Did I oversleep again?” you asked around a yawn, rubbing your eyes for a moment.

“No, it’s only been about an hour,” she assured you. “But if you want any hope of falling asleep at a normal hour tonight, you should probably get up now.”

You gave a small hum at her words, finally pushing yourself into a sitting position. Without even thinking about it, you instantly picked up Takara and held her in your lap, just having the weight of her in your hands satisfying some part of your mind; you wondered if it was the same for everyone when their dragons were still just sleepy hatchlings.

“Is there anything we need to do today?” you asked after a moment. “If I stay sitting here at home all day I might fall asleep again.”

Your comment drew a small chuckle from your mother. “Fair enough,” she conceded. “I’m working on a few pieces of clothing today, but I’m out of one of the fabrics I need. I was going to send your father to the store to see if there’s any in stock, or if we’ll need to order more. He’s always happy to have company, so if you ask to go with him, I’m sure he’ll say yes.”

The mention of your family’s fabric shop made you perk up a bit; you hadn’t spent much time there as you’d gotten older, and now that you had the most important dragon in the last three centuries, it seemed unlikely that you’d have much opportunity to do so going forward. Knowing that, you weren’t about to pass up an opportunity to spend some time there with your father, even if the shop would technically be closed when you were there.

Eager to confirm with your father that you could join him on his errand, you thanked your mother, then slid out of bed and hurried to the living room, where your father was sitting in front of the fireplace with a book. He looked up when he heard your footsteps, and he smiled brightly when he saw that you were awake again.

“Hello, you two,” he greeted warmly. “Did you sleep well?”

You nodded, smiling back at him as you walked over. “Mom said she needs you to check the stock of some fabric at the store for her. Can Takara and I come with you?” you asked hopefully.

As if trying to help convince your father, Takara lifted her head from where she laid curled up in your arms. Aiming her wide, emerald green eyes at him, she made a soft cooing noise. It wasn’t a common sound for dragons to make, but you recognized it as one that you’d heard Sparrow make once or twice, when she knew she was in trouble and was trying to appease your father when he grew upset with her; it was a soft, pleading noise, and one that you thought the dragons must generally find embarrassing or unbecoming, since you’d only ever heard one other dragon make it before in your whole life.

The sound had your father practically melting in his seat, though he did his best to maintain his composure. “Of course you can come,” he agreed easily. “I’ll get my keys and speak to your mother while you get dressed.”

A beaming grin brightened your expression at his words, and you enthusiastically thanked him before hurrying back to your room. You set Takara down for a few moments, letting her curl up on your pillow as you grabbed clothes to change into. Despite the sunshine that brightened your home right then, it was still winter, and living so close to the ocean often meant cold winds, regardless of the weather, so you grabbed what you knew would be best for the walk to your family’s shop: a grey long sleeve shirt – which upon putting on, you realized you would probably outgrow sooner rather than later – and a pair of warm black pants. At the last second, you also pulled on a pair of thick socks, made from a very soft, expensive woolen yarn – a material your father had managed to barter for a couple years before, in order to gift the yarn to your mother for the winter solstice.

Once you were dressed, you scooped Takara up once again and walked towards the front door, where your father was waiting for you, list in hand and Sparrow perched on his shoulder. “Would you like me to hold her for you while you put on your coat and your shoes?” he asked, nodding slightly towards your hatchling.

You nodded gratefully, passing Takara to him before grabbing your boots. It wasn’t snowing outside, and hadn’t snowed significantly in a few days, but they were the only shoes you owned that didn’t have open toes, so on they went. As you fiddled with the laces, you heard Takara give the same little warning noise she’d given this morning, and you looked up to see Sparrow leaning down from your father’s shoulder to get a closer look at your hatchling, having apparently forgotten that that same hatchling had snapped at her earlier in the day. This time, though, she stayed out of range of Takara’s teeth, and eventually settled down on your father’s shoulder again, apparently satisfied with her investigation.

It didn’t take long after that for you to get your boots laced and tied and your coat buttoned up. You took Takara back from your father then, and held her at eye level for a moment. “Do you want to ride on my neck, or in my pocket?” you asked her. Then, realizing she almost certainly had no idea what any of those words meant, you asked again, this time a bit slower and pointing at the two places as you said the words.

Almost instantly, Takara began walking up your arm on wobbly legs, and you realized that she was trying to take her usual place draped around your neck.

“Alright,” you said, “I got it. Let me help you.” Carefully, you brought her to your neck, pulling the collar of your coat open a bit more to give her the space to make herself comfortable as she pleased. After you were sure she was settled, you looked up at your father. “We’re ready.”

Your father nodded, smiling a bit brighter. He turned to the door, turning the knob and pulling it open. “We’ll be back soon, my love!” he called out to your mother, then ushered you out the door.

For a moment, you squinted against the light, but all you could do was smile; the sun and wind on your face was refreshing, and just as you’d hoped, it served to wake you up even more. Walking alongside your father, you took in your surroundings with a newfound appreciation; not being able to leave the walls of the Gojo estate for a week had made you realize how much you missed the freedom to walk around and talk to people. It also made you feel even worse for your friends, being cooped up in the estate every day for the last three years, but you made up your mind to get them out as much as you could, regardless of what Gojo-sama thought.

For the first time since you were a small child, you found yourself dazzled by the settlement: the trees that lined the outskirts of the main town and nearly every walkway, even if most of them had few leaves still clinging to their branches; the homes with reinforced spots on their roofs because of years of dragons climbing on them; the cobblestones of the streets worn smooth by generations of footsteps and carts; the pristine shop faces around the square, despite the age of some of the buildings; even the sharp scent of salt that danced in on the winds the come off the ocean nearby felt precious to you, something to be savored and committed to memory.

Though it was midday by that point, there weren’t many people out and about, likely still recovering from the festival the night before; though you’d gone home with your parents somewhat early, you doubted that most other people had gone home before midnight, and that many people had likely had a great deal to drink in celebration of a metallic dragon now residing amongst them.

You and your father made it to the shop – a smaller one, tucked in a far corner of the square – without encountering anyone else, and once your father unlocked the door, you stepped inside, a smile on your face. Being inside the shop had always felt calm, even when there were customers, but with just you and your father, it felt absolutely serene. As your father locked the door behind him, then set about looking for the fabrics on the list your mother had given him, you wandered about aimlessly, trailing your fingers over some of the softer fabrics. A dark green one in particular caught your eye, and you lingered on it for a moment. You’d never had a favorite color before, but ever since Gojo-hime had gifted you with green clothes, you’d found yourself growing more fond of it.

Maybe I could ask mom to make me something with that fabric, you thought to yourself; it was likely you’d need new clothes soon, anyways, so you couldn’t imagine she’d tell you no.

A moment later, your father called your name, and you turned back to face him. There were two bolts of fabric in his arms, and you could see the corner of your mother’s list sticking out slightly from in between them. “I found most of what your mother needs, but I’ll have to get in contact with one of the merchants on the next island over to get the last fabric. Are you ready to go home?”

You were a bit disheartened to be leaving so quickly, but you nodded; you knew you’d be back with your mother when it came time for new clothes, so you did your best not to dwell on your disappointment. Since his arms were full, your father passed you the key, thanking you as you unlocked the door, then locked it again once the two of you were outside the shop.

Just as you were pocketing the key, you heard someone walk up and start to make small talk with your father. You thought nothing of it, recognizing the voice as one of the regular customers to the shop, and they merely seemed curious about when the shop would be reopening again. When you stepped out from behind your father, though, the person paused for a moment.

“You’re the one with the metallic dragon,” they said, their tone somewhere between awestruck and nervous.

“I am,” you confirmed. You couldn’t say you were necessarily surprised by the behavior, but you’d hoped it wouldn’t start right away when you started appearing in public again.

“That dragon of yours must be really special,” the person continued. “I didn’t get a good look at her at the festival yesterday. Any chance you could let me see her now?”

You hesitated, feeling a bit unsettled under their stare. “She’s at home,” you lied. “It’s too cold for her outside right now.”

“I have a hard time believing that,” the person said, unconvinced. “Nobody goes anywhere without their dragon for the first few months. I just want a little peek, I’ve never gotten to see a metallic dragon in real life before.”

Put off even further by the person’s intensity, you shifted back from them a bit. “Nobody had before last week,” you retorted, “because nobody’s seen a metallic dragon in three hundred years. It doesn’t mean you have to see one right now.”

Unfortunately for you, your snippy comment and slightly raised voice backfired, as it drew the attention of the few other people in the square, and they all began to make their way over.

“Is that the kid with the metallic dragon?” one man called out as he approached.

The person who addressed your father in the first place nodded, smiling wide. “Yes! They were just about to show me their dragon, too.”

Hearing those words, everyone else lit up, hurrying to gather around you, all of them jostling one another to try and get the closest to you, each of them eager to get the best look at your hatchling.

You felt yourself bristle at the blatant lie that had just been told, but before you could snap back a reply, the whole group was practically on top of you, invading your space much more than you ever could have anticipated; it wouldn’t have been a huge surprise to you if someone had tried to reach out and grab you in that moment. The rush of attention was even worse than being stared at by the entire settlement at the festival the night before; this felt more pointed, more invasive.

Thankfully, your father was good at picking up on your distress, and he did his absolute best to put himself between you and the gathered group. He was not a large man, though, and he could only protect you so much from the insistent crowd. Even Sparrow came to your defense, hissing and snapping at people when they pressed in closer, trying to drive them back, but it only resulted in her getting into a spitting match with someone else’s dragon. For once, Takara was silent in her hiding spot, but you could feel how fast her heart was beating against your neck, her distress both echoing and amplifying your own.

You put your hand in your pocket, clutching the key to the shop door tightly in your hand; if you needed to escape inside, you would, and it looked like it was going to come to that, despite your father’s best efforts to protect you and disperse the group of people. Each passing moment pressed you further and further into the door, and you had just begun to fumble with the lock when a familiar voice broke through the warring voices of your father and the near obsessive crowd pressing you back.

“That’s enough!” Kento’s father shouted, his footsteps approaching from across the square. His words carried across the open space easily, ringing out with an authority your father’s voice simply didn’t have. It was enough to startle the group into turning around, and when they saw Kento’s father – a tall, well-muscled man, noticeable even under the sweater he wore, and with real anger in his eyes – making his way towards him, they parted to make room for him.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves, harassing a child,” he said, finally reaching the cluster of people. “Leave, right now. Find something better to do with your time, and think about this ridiculous behavior.” When the group seemed to hesitate, his gaze hardened even further. “Didn’t you hear me? I said. Go. Home.”

Apparently deciding not to challenge the hard look in his eyes, the crowd dispersed, most of the muttering unhappily under their breath. Kento’s father turned to you then, brows furrowed with concern. “Are the two of you alright?” he asked, voice much gentler than just a few moments before. “I’m sorry I didn’t step in sooner, I didn’t realize what was going on until Kokoro came to fetch me.”

Your father shook his head. “No need to apologize,” he promised. “We’re thankful you were here to help at all.” He turned and looked at you over his shoulder, frowning worriedly. “Are you okay?”

A moment of hesitation, then you nodded slowly; you still felt a bit shaken, yes, having not expected such intense focus on you and Takara, nor such intense disrespect of your boundaries, but you knew your father had done what he could to protect you, even if it wasn’t quite enough on its own. “Yes,” you said quietly. “I’m fine. Thank you, Nanami-san,” you added, looking over at your friends’ father; you really were grateful for his intervention, unsure how much the situation would’ve escalated without it. Then, after a beat, you looked back to your father and asked, voice small, “Can we go home now?”

He nodded immediately. “Of course, sweetheart. Let’s get back to your mother.”

Nodding back, you quickly fell into step beside him, staring down at the cobblestones as you walked, not wanting to risk drawing any extra attention to yourself. Having Kento’s father walking behind you, wordlessly escorting you home, helped soothe your fears, but it also solidified one thing in your mind: your life would never again be what it was, and that no longer felt like a good thing.

thank you guys for your patience with me, and thank you for sticking around and still reading this big au, i really can't express my appreciation enough 💜

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forest-hashira · 11 hours ago