One hell of a nice evening at the glassworks turned into a much too early morning back at his apartment. Zayneth hadn’t meant to let things run so late, but Kav had stopped by to drop off the key he lent her and…well… The glass forge wasn’t the only thing to get hot.
Dawn was breaking by the time he unlocked his front door and stepped inside, only to find his roommate Vy’thanis passed out on the floor five steps from the door. “Vyth! Wh-… Oh.” In reaching for Vyth, his hand hit a bottle of- he traced its shape- gin and he grimaced. “Really, man? You gotta drink my gin? I thought you hated it.”
Vyth stirred enough to mumble something incoherent. Rather than try to drag his friend up, Zay sat down next to him and lifted the dark-haired man’s head into his lap. “C’mon. Up you go. There.” Twenty minutes passed with Zay sitting on the floor, stroking his roommate’s lush, oil-slick-black hair. He’d been told there were purple and blue elements to the shine of it, and that sounded amazing; if nothing else, Vyth’s hair was super soft.
And…dandruff? Frowning, Zay rubbed his fingertips together, then combed through Vyth’s hair again. “Hey, buddy. Wake up. What’s goin’ on?”
His roommate made the most miserable sound and turned his face towards Zay’s belly, curling on his side to wrap an arm behind him. “Everything suuuucks,” the darker elf whined into Zay’s abdomen.
“Why does everything suck, buddy?”
“I went to a play and the play was funny and Ali was there and he’s gonna have eggs but they’re not mine and I’m iiiitchy.”
“Woah. Woah, let me stop you there. Elves work just like dragons in that regard; dudes do not have eggs. Also, pretty sure you couldn’t- I mean, in elf form, you’d make little elves.” Zayneth frowned. He’d never really given it much thought. He really hoped that wasn’t something they’d ever have to find out. “Anyway, I’m sure Ali is not…gonna have…eggs.” This was at least number seven on the Weirdest Conversations With Vythaku list.
“But he is! Little faerie dragon eggs with his new boyfriend who’s bigger and taller than me.”
“Oh, Vyth…” Zay went back to stroking his friend’s hair. Eventually, his fingertips stroked the skin at the back of Vyth’s neck and he realized that the ‘dandruff’ he’d felt was dry skin flaking off in sheets like a sunburn. Vyth was starting to shed. No wonder he was in a bad mood. “You’re a very good, very strong male. Anyone would be proud to have you with them.”
“He’s bigger and taller and he’s got a dragon researcher sister and he’s even got dark hair like meeee.”
Poor Vyth. He was really bad at letting go of things he thought were once his. “How about you just don’t date anybody with dark hair?” It was just ridiculous enough that he might be able to make Vyth smile and break the cycle of pouty, misplaced territoriality.
“How does that change anything?”
“Well… There’s a theory out there that elf hair color is a bit like dragon scale color; it shows your temperament. Maybe you need someone lighter in your life for a while.”
The arm around Zay’s waist tightened. “Like you?”
“Maybe a bit like me, yeah. Find a pretty blonde.”
“What about orange? I like orange.”
“Buddy, I don’t think either of us has the balls for a redhead.”
I felt like reblogging this piece. For reasons.