The house on the top of the mountain, or ancient fortified castle that was in need of some modernisation, was something different than what Yifan thought it would be but he could already start to see how it could be made into a place that he would come to love to stay. Though it was in dire need of a dust down and a clean, as was made evident by Chen sneezing abruptly and nearly causing a fire as the amount of static he discharged at the same time was very nearly dangerous.

Consequently, the lightening dragon had been sent outside to keep watch and Yifan got the distinct impression that he was content to be away from all of the dust.

Everyone excluding the hatchlings were now in human form, all dressed accordingly though Yifan had been completely unable to dissuade Baekhyun from wearing what was clearly a female hanfu because the light dragon found it pretty, flowing and just everything he liked. After seeing how the other paraded around looking fantastic, Yifan had given up trying to change the dragon and just left him as was. Thankfully the others did at least have some sense of how they were supposed to dress, even though Yifan had to help Xiumin because the Ice Dragon had not been in human form for so long that he found it all a bit new and strange.

Chanyeol whistled low, “Man we neglected this place a fair bit.”

“You’re telling me, give me a ride you big oaf,” Baekhyun sassed towards the taller with his hands on his hips and everyone groaned because it was already going to be a long day as was and now they were going to have to put up with Baekhyun whining about getting his clothes dusty.

However, before that thought had even finished fully forming in everyone’s heads, Tao and Sehun and suddenly pounced forwards with gleeful squeaks and calls as they chased around after the dust bunnies and basically acted like they were supposed to. Yifan went to berate the pair for just making everything dustier when he happened to notice that there were odd silver sparks coming off of Tao’s claws so he took a step back.

Only to blink a second later to find himself in the middle of a very clean looking castle that even had soft furnishings and fresh flowers in the vases around them. Tao let out a happy sounding caw and promptly bopped a now very much exhausted Sehun on the head with a series of clicks that sounded almost like quite proud babble. Well that was what Yifan could presume seeing as the black scaled dragon rushed towards him in order to get petted.

His rainbow companion flopped onto the floor, clearly planning on not moving another inch for a long while.

“What happened?” Yifan asked, breaking the near silence as he scratched behind Tao’s ear much to the dragon’s delight.

“I’m not sure,” Suho said, looking around in confusion, “I remember this place looking like this but it was years ago.”

“Oh,” Xiumin spoke at long last, “Tao’s figured out his power. Them two must have been at it for hours.”

Chen stuck his head carefully around the door before stepping in and whistling, “Wow, I didn’t think these two scutterbugs could do something like this. They must have been practicing really hard.”

Yixing quickly interjected before anyone could ask how come Chen could know about this sort of situation, by holding up his hand, “I think if we locate the library and find the books we may be able to have a better chance of getting these two to assume human form. It should be easier since they’ll be tired and a little more cooperative.”

Raising an eyebrow at that remark, Suho shook his head and began leading the way to the library though he noticed that Kyungsoo had already peeled off from the group to head towards the kitchen with a bright smile. “I doubt they’ll be anything edible in there, Kyungsoo,” he called after the disappearing figure only to receive some incoherent call back and it was just generally presumed to be a good idea to let the other figure it out on his own.

Yifan paused momentarily to look down at Sehun, “Are you coming with us?”

“Mine....” the tone was low and drawn out so Yifan took that as a no and gently petted the rainbow dragon’s head before hurrying off after the others. Tao followed as far as the stairs before freaking out about them and skulking his way back to where Sehun lay with the hopes of being able to get some sympathy from his friend. Who was currently snoring really loudly.

The library was huge and filled with so many books that Yifan got the distinct impression that they would be here for hours even before this all started but after barely twenty minutes, Xiumin had yelled loudly at Chen for being a little pranking idiot and thrown a book at the others head which turned out to be the exact one that they were looking for.

Or at least it had ‘dragonology spells’ written on the cover so it was a good start.

However only Xiumin and Yixing could read the pages as it was written in an ancient text that the others had not studied properly so the rest of the evening was spent waiting for the pair to work out what they were supposed to do. The upshot of all of this however was that Kyungsoo made them a cooked supper and Yifan praised the small green frilled dragon because it was one of the finest meals that he had ever personally tasted. Not that he had overly much to go on of course but Yifan did not care. If he could eat this grandly all of the time he would be extremely happy.

Sehun had practically smothered him that night, still far too tired to even make it up the stairs to bed but Chanyeol sensibly went upstairs and fetched the prince some pillows and blankets to at least make the white marble floor a little more comfortable. Strangely the rocks of the cave where he had slept for the past few months were softer than this but Yifan chalked that up to the fact that he had nine dragons to nestle up with.

The next morning, he was awoken with a start as a bang bounced off the walls around him and Sehun let out a terrified squeak before trying to hide behind Yifan which looked rather comical. “What in heck?” Yifan grumbled as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes and focus on the scene in front of him.

Sitting close together with a pot suspended over a little fire, Xiumin and Yixing were in the process of mixing something together which currently had green smoke pouring out of the top of it.

“I said two cloves, not spoonful’s,” Xiumin commented, peering at the oddly coloured liquid and attempting to stir it, “This is not going to work now.”

“But you said spoonful’s,” Yixing complained, pouting in a slightly overly dramatic fashion and putting something down, “Plus it’s not like we’re going to run out of anything. This place is vastly stocked.”

“That’s not the point,” Xiumin sighed, “If this potion goes wrong then who knows what it’ll do to Tao and Sehun.”

Yixing sighed, “Probably not a lot. It takes more than a drink to affect our kind you know that.”

Yifan jumped in surprise when a pair of arms wrapped around him, “They’ve been at this all morning. I’m surprised they did not wake you up beforehand.” Baekhyun smiled before helping Yifan to stand, “Come on, Kyungsoo’s got breakfast on the go now so you can have a right old fashioned feast.”

That sounded far more appealing and Yifan was happy to follow the other, letting a grumbling Sehun come along at his own pace because it just seemed easier. Plus, the smell of food was far more tempting that dealing with a complaining hatchling. Kyungsoo had really cooked up a storm, there was so much food that the table was groaning but there were plenty of mouths to feed and once everyone had had their fill they all helped to clean up and put everything back the way it was.

A while later there came a second pop from the courtyard but this time a pale white smoke was just curling off the top of the cooking pot and Yifan tilted his head as he approached the two happy looking dragons sat either side of it. “So what is this that you’re doing?” he asked carefully, hoping that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

“It’s a potion which should help them to find their human forms,” Yixing said, checking back over the information once again just to be absolutely certain that they had done everything right, “It’s apparently a useful spell for times of war and low dragon numbers.”

“And it’s only taken us four attempts to make it so hopefully we should be fine,” Xiumin said as he stopped his stirring and turned to the two hatchling dragons who were lingering on the edge of the courtyard.

“Right, whose first?”

Immediately the youngsters were off, determined to not be the first one to drink the potion in the slightest. The chase lasted all of five minutes because Sehun had decided to charge straight down an open well where promptly he got stuck upside down, with only the tip of his rainbow coloured tail sticking out of the top to show where he was and Tao in his haste to get away face planted straight into a wall in the back garden. Chen had assumed his dragon form and simply walked over to the dazed youngster, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and brought him back to the other two.

Tao tried to resist drinking the potion, he really did but a badly timed but much needed intake of breath resulted in him getting a good spoonful straight down his throat. Pulling away the youngster hacked and coughed for a few seconds in fright before blinking when he realised that nothing had happened in the slightest. He blinked, squeaked in indignation towards the elders and then promptly hiccupped.

The next second there wasn’t a black dragon hatchling anymore, there was a black puppy who looked mildly confused before another hiccup saw a horse, then a raven, followed by a cat, a panda, a seal and a black gold fish before with a final hiccup Tao turned back into his dragon form and immediately burrowed into Chen’s side.

Only to hiccup again and turn into a puppy.

Yifan moved quickly to the puppy to pick it up and give Tao a cuddle because the poor thing was whining like mad in distress and he turned to look at Yixing and Xiumin in the hopes that they could at least work out what was going on. However, Tao hiccupped again and turned into a miniature red panda, followed by a miniature cat, and then a miniature dragon.

“Keep hold of him,” Yixing said as he scanned the text, “It may help.”

Yifan wanted to let out a cry of disbelief at that statement but was distracted by a sudden blur of rainbow colours as Sehun came launching past him with the wind whipping wildly around in an uncontrolled manner before he crash landed.

Straight onto the pot of the strange hiccup transformation concoction that the elders had come up with.

Hiccup, rainbow coloured horse, hiccup, rainbow coloured bear, hiccup rainbow coloured puppy.

Yifan snatched the puppy before it could change form again and held tightly onto both, “You need to fix this!” he wailed towards the pair, “I can’t have them forever changing forms when they hiccup.”

Suho placed a comforting hand upon the boy’s head, “Don’t worry, they’ll figure it out. It’s probably just a small thing that needs fixing.”

“Oh I owe you an apology Yixing,” Xiumin blushed, “It does say coco beans, not coconut milk.”

Sensing that there was about to be a massive argument, Yifan shook his head and headed away from the rest of the dragons to find a nice quiet room where the hiccupping duo could at least be on something soft and comfortable. When their hiccups calmed down half an hour later, Tao remained in his black puppy form with big floppy ears that drooped to the floor and caused him to trip constantly where Sehun had turned into a rainbow coloured kitten.

Yifan would never dare to admit that he had found the pair adorable and that spending the afternoon just playing with the pair as if he were a simply a child with no big impending royal meetings to go to was one of the most fun experiences of his life.

The night drew in quick that night and Suho went to check on the trio shortly after the sun had gone down only to find all three curled up together in sleep and he did not have the heart to wake them. Instead he smiled, carefully covered the trio with a blanket and left the room as quietly as he could. They could try the potion again tomorrow and hopefully this time it would be right. Though convincing either of the hatchlings to drink would be a task that was sure to be one that Suho was not looking forward to in the slightest. 

authors babbling: big kudos goes out to LovelyRedFlowers  for suggesting Yixing making up a potion, I just added Xiumin to the mix for a little bit of a laugh. Boy the poor hatchlings. They'll hate hiccups from now on teehee