I stared at him. “You’re a dragon. Material things are what you mostly care about.”
He rolled his eyes. “I have part of my hoard right here. And I expect more of it will be here soon.”
I was confused, looking around to see any of Kevin’s treasures that I might have missed. There was nothing. “I don’t understand.”
“You, Sam. You’re part of my hoard. Your parents are in the house next door. And Gary and Tiggy and Ryan and Justin, they’ll be coming home tomorrow or the next day, or so I’ve heard.”
“But—I don’t… hoards are supposed to be your most precious things!”
“I know.”
“And that—you just—we’re part of your hoard?”
“Always quick on the uptake, Sam is. It’s what I always tell people.”
“Dude,” I demanded. “I have such a godsdamn heart boner right now, you don’t even know. Pick me up because we need to hug!”
And he did just that. I tried not to think about what his hand had recently been doing, because that was causing my heart boner to wilt.
I took his snout in my hands as he nuzzled my face. “If I was a dragon, you’d be in my hoard too.”
He growled low in his throat, something he did when he was happy. “You would make a good dragon, I think. Maybe even a great one.”
I lay my head between the slits of his nose. His breath was hot against my skin. “I’m still scared. A little.”
“Of them coming back??
??
I shrugged, not looking at him.
“They will be angry.”
My shoulders sagged.
“And they are probably going to yell at us.”
I sighed.
“And they may not forgive us for a long time.”
“Great,” I muttered. “That’s just swell.”
“But it’ll only be so because they love us so much.”
“Yeah?”
He hummed in response.
“We did the right thing.” I knew I was trying to convince myself, and I didn’t know if it was working.
“We did.”
“Even if it started out because I was running away.”
“Even if.”
“And we’ll let them yell.”