Taemin felt like sticking his head out of the window and screaming in victory, but he knew that his standing with Jonghyun was already on thin ice as it was. It was out of pity, he was completely aware that Jonghyun had only let him tag along because he felt bad that the boy had to spend his birthday in a dorm room. His parents hadn’t even called yet, even though it was already about 11, and Taemin wasn’t ready to bet any amount of money that they’d even remember his birthday.

“Alright, listen, when we get there, you have to promise you won’t tell anyone you’re my student,” Jonghyun cautioned, looking over at the boy. Taemin nodded, chewing on his nail nervously. Tessy, who had been laying down in the back seat with Jonghyun’s dragon, Roo, hopped over the back of Taemin’s seat to perch on the boy’s shoulder. He draped his tail comfortingly around Taemin’s shoulders and nuzzled his ear, something that the dragon often did with an unapologetic sweetness.

The boy’s hand curled around his dragon’s chin absentmindedly, the soft scales under Tessy’s mouth, as his head turned and leaned on the window of the car. He watched the scenery pass, the heart of the city where his father used to work in the corner bookstore. They’d lived above the store, rent lowered just slightly by the corporation that owned the space, but now his parents lived in the suburbs, and his dad was the one collecting that rent and managing not only that store, but every bookstore under the Scales and Leather ^TM name in the zip code. Taemin wasn’t even allowed to joke anymore about how it sounded like a shop. Dad had down the corporate Kool-Aid in one shot.

Finally, they emerged from the heart of the city where parking was cheaper and Jonghyun pulled over to the first available space. Taemin opened the car door absentmindedly and winced at the sound of the nice leather crunching against the pole holding up the parking meter, looking up sheepishly at Jonghyun. The older man’s nose wrinkled, and his fingers came up to pinch against the space between his eyes.

“… Just get out. Please,” he said softly. Taemin obeyed instantly.

“I-I can pay for it,” he said hastily, thinking of the hefty spending account his parents had left him. The teacher just grunted as he put a few quarters into the meter and waved Taemin along the street. The young boy trotted along, seeing Roo’s long, angular, light green body draping over Jonghyun’s shoulders.

“I’m not going to make you pay for it, but you’re going to have to come with me to pick it up when I get around to getting it repaired,” Jonghyun bargained. The boy nodded eagerly, just glad that he hadn’t pissed off his favorite teacher too badly. Jonghyun’s lips cracked in a small smile. “Alright. Let’s change the subject. Are you excited to be graduating?”

“Yeah!” Taemin said eagerly. Schools let out in August here, since dragons started molting in September and wouldn’t be completely themselves until October. The school year would start again until November, after the long-awaited fall break, but Taemin would be off to university by then.

“What school do you want to go to?” Jonghyun asked curiously, instinctively shifting his shoulders so that Roo could get more comfortable. Taemin watched the action with admiration, hoping that one day he and Tessy could get on that level. For now, Tessy still had to dig his needle-like claws into Taemin’s shoulder to tell Taemin that his posture .

“I’m not sure yet. I wish I could get into Clawton, but that’s all the way out across the county, and I’m not even sure they’d take me,” Taemin said as he straightened his back so that Tessy wasn’t in danger of tumbling off his shoulders. Sensing his owner’s self-doubt, the dragon bit Taemin’s cheek, causing the boy to swat at the creature with irritation. Jonghyun laughed at the sight, tilting his head.

“Even your dragon knows that’s bull. Yeah, you have a few blemishes in your behavioral record—” he shot Taemin a knowing look with his eyebrow raised “—but your grades are solid, and Sacred Flame Academy is a pretty big name. But it’s interesting that you’d want to go to Clawton. I thought your dad had you on the business track,” he teased. Taemin’s nose crinkled up, and Tessy’s wings flared a bit at his owner’s temper spiking.

“ing calculus, man! ing calculus and stats homework up my ing for ing two years, like what the actual, God-loving, unforgiving, sinful, demon-ing ?” Taemin demanded. Tessy’s anger caused moss to sprout at an alarming rate on the sidewalk behind them. Jonghyun laughed harder, feeling nostalgic for those days of unbridled emotional freedom when Roo would just go causing whirlwinds at Jonghyun’s slightest irritation. Now, however, the dragon just yawned and watched Tessy, unimpressed with the temper tantrum.

“So, you’re rebelling by going to art school? Careful you don’t end up an English teacher like me,” Jonghyun teased, getting more and more relaxed the longer they were away from school. Taemin looked up at the sight of a chalkboard outside a casually-sized bar with the words Summer Shots! Loosen up with 50% off all drinks written on it in flamboyant pinks and yellows. Jonghyun held open the door for Taemin, who was already excited by the sound of music blasting from the building, hurried inside.

It was everything he’d ever dreamed it would be. Filthy floors, discarded half-emptied glasses strewn with reckless abandon around the area, people dancing like they were trying to conceive through their clothes, and dragons getting into random fights over discarded bar nachos. A teenager’s dream, essentially. He jumped a bit at Jonghyun’s arm going around his shoulder, and he heard the flap of Tessy’s wings as the dragon flew alongside them instead.

“Hey, can we get some Fireball for me, and Grey Goose for the birthday boy here?” Jonghyun called out. The bartender turned, and a look in Jonghyun’s eyes told Taemin that it was probably best if he just finished his shot and left before things got awkward. The man was absolutely gorgeous, high cheekbones and eyes like a cat’s, with a yellow winged dragon wrapped around his forearm. The man made his way over, pouring the drinks with a bit of a smirk.

“Anything else with that?” he asked, locking eyes with Jonghyun.

“Your number,” the teacher said with a speed that made Taemin choke on thin air.

“If you tip me well enough,” the bartender bargained. Taemin read his nametag. Kibum. The dragon hopped onto the counter and breathed out against the two filled shot glasses, causing them to ice over, before hopping back to his perch. Taemin picked up the frigid glass and made a face at the smell before tipping his head back and dumping it all down his throat.

It burned like hell on the way down. He’d only ever drank with Jongin in their dorm room, and even then, it had been the weak that Jongin would sneak from home. Those nights usually ended with the two, slightly buzzed, messing around in bed, but Taemin could tell that a few of these would knock him out on his instead. Jonghyun handed Kibum his credit card, and when the man extended an elegant hand to take it and open a tab, Jonghyun wrote his number on Kibum’s wrist with a red pen. So, teachers did carry those around! Kibum laughed with amusement, but didn’t pull away.

“In case I forget to leave a tip later,” the older man said with a wink. Kibum scoffed, but his eyes were inviting. Taemin ordered another drink hastily, and Kibum obliged with a sympathetic smile. Taemin downed it again, making a face even worse than the last. The man laughed gently at the sight.

“You can slow down, you know,” he advised. Taemin’s cheeks turned red and he just looked away as Tessy and the man’s dragon hopped onto the counter and regarded the other curiously. Kibum laughed and Taemin looked back to see him his hand down the space between his yellow dragon’s immaculate wings. “This is Comme Des, but I call him Dessy for short.”

“I call my dragon Tessy!” Taemin exclaimed excitedly, causing both Kibum and Jonghyun to laugh in unison as Kibum filled Jonghyun’s glass too. The boy turned red at the sound, but he kept talking anyway. “His name’s actually Tessitura, but I couldn’t pronounce that, so I would just walk around and go ‘Tessy’ when I was a kid and I guess it stuck and my parents think it’s ‘improper’ for me to call my dragon by a nickname or whatever but they’re stuck up anyway so I don’t care and—”

“Taemin, why don’t you go dance,” Jonghyun suggested. The boy blushed and looked from Jonghyun to Kibum, frowning at the idea that the two were trying to get rid of him to flirt or whatever, but Kibum just filled both their glasses and put the bottles back on the shelf.

“Yeah, you should go work out some of that alcohol,” Kibum said with a gently smile that made Tessy purr even if Taemin was trying to keep a mature face. Kibum flashed Jonghyun a charming smile next. “I have to go get to other customers, but watch the kid and make sure he doesn’t break himself, okay?” he teased the older man before walking off. Jonghyun hated that Kibum had to leave, but the look on his face told Taemin that he loved to watch the man go.

“I… I’m going to go dance,” Taemin said awkwardly, slinking off after finishing his third shot.

~

Minho pushed his way through the crowd to get to the bar, irritated and sore from a day of work. Denz slithered from around Minho’s arm onto the bar and flopped dramatically next to a puddle of spilled beer just in time for Dessy to comfort him. Kibum laughed at the sight of the two dragons before fixing Minho with a mock-angry glare.

“Hey, Hothead,” he teased, pouring Minho a tall glass of something that smelled like rubbing alcohol. Minho drank it down and laughed dryly as he set the glass back onto the coaster, tilting his head in Kibum’s direction.

“Ha. I get it. Because my dragon breathes fire. And also because of my temper. That joke was so funny the first hundred times you told it,” he said sarcastically. He let out a yelp as Dessy, not missing a beat, nipped at Minho’s pinkie. Minho drew his hand to his chest, and looked at Denz to defend him, but the two dragons just went back to playing. “Traitor,” he scoffed.

“Hey, go easy on him. I bet he’s glad to be around real class for once,” Kibum scolded as he put down a dish of burnt ground meat from the kitchen for the blue creature. Denz dove in head-first, chomping down large mouthfuls with delight. Kitchen rejects were his favorite. Minho gave Denz a few loving scratches on the back.

“Real class, huh?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Kibum’s words when he saw someone from down the bar retching their guts out. Kibum let out a groan of frustration as the offender’s girlfriend quickly dragged him to get cleaned up, leaving the actual cleaning up to Kibum. Minho watched with a secret admiration as his friend ran off with his dragon to take care of things.

Comme Des exhaled hard on the pool of vomit, turning it into a sickly-colored block of ice, which Kibum scraped into a trash bag. Kibum made a face as he went out the back door to toss it into the trash, and Minho mischievously followed him out into the chilly air. He waited until Kibum had tossed the bag into the dumpster before suddenly grabbing the man’s arms. Kibum didn’t have time to protest before he was pinned to the brick wall of the bar and Minho’s lips pressed to his.

Minho’s tongue was addicted to how it tasted in Kibum’s mouth, and he had the man’s arms above his head with Minho’s fingers those delicate wrists. He loved how instantly Kibum melted into the intense kiss, one leg coming up and wrapping around Minho’s firm waist. One of Minho’s hands gathered both wrists into one grip as the other hand traveled down and rubbed against Kibum’s hip.

“Minho, I have to go back. It’s the biggest night of the y—mph,” Kibum’s protests were effectively silenced by another kiss, his tongue finding its way into Minho’s mouth and his hips grinding up against Minho’s crotch. The taller man had to admit, he loved having that kind of control over his friend with just a few kisses and touches in all the right places.

Finally, Minho pulled away and tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. Kibum groaned at the look and looked down at Dessy, who had been chasing Denz during their owners’ passionate exchange. Dessy immediate looked up at the man, who flicked his head in Minho’s direction. Minho laughed as he was playfully attached by the creature, who leapt up and not so much scratched as tickled Minho’s forearm with his claws.

“It’s the biggest night of the year, Choi Minho, and here you are, trying to seduce me in an alleyway next to a dumpster,” Kibum said sternly, holding his forearm out. Dessy perched on it eagerly and huffed a few tiny flecks of ice in Minho’s direction from flared nostrils. Denz, in turn, flew to Minho and curled around his forearm as if Minho was a kind of pillar.

“It’s not like you didn’t enjoy it,” Minho teased before heading with Kibum back into the building. He sat at the bar and got another glass of hard liquor, feeling the buzz starting to kick in and make him feel warm. He took his second refill of the night, and this glass seemed to go straight to his head. He got up and decided to dance a bit, pleasantly affected by the alcohol and leaving most of his judgement at the bar.

The music was perfect, as always, since Kibum’s taste in music was as immaculate as everything else (besides the floors of the bar). Minho went to the gathering of moving bodies and grinding hips in the center of the bar, joining them eagerly. He felt a pair of slim hips pressing to his own, and he didn’t question it as he held onto them, grinding back. The owner of the hips leaned back against Minho’s chest, and he could see that it was a younger guy who was pretty much on the brink. Still, his dancing seemed more than lucid, and Minho was anything but.

Their bodies were clumsily out of sync, but even the mere touch of their hips together made the dance worth it. Minho’s lips were peppering the other’s neck and shoulder, his hand touching the bare skin where the shirt rode up the slim body and revealed a perfectly toned body. He felt the toned stomach and the well-defined chest under the fabric, the other’s hand sliding south instead. Minho had no issues with this. He liked a guy who got straight to business.

What he didn’t like, however, was getting puke all over his shoes, which was what happened next.

Minho stumbled back from his partner, who was still retching and puking, and in that moment Minho realized that when the maturity melted away, this was definitely some high-schooler who’d gotten out of his depth.

“What are you doing? Hey, is anyone responsible for this kid?” Minho shouted loudly, looking around the bar with a haze over his eyes. The massive crowd around the dancefloor didn’t make his job any easier. All the faces seemed to blend together, but he noticed a stockier guy making his way over through the mess of alcohol and bodies with a furious intent.

“What the hell were you doing, dancing with my student?” this new guy demanded, also very drunk. He pushed Minho’s chest, causing Minho to push back. Denz hissed loudly at the other man’s green dragon, who snarled and caused a hard wind to slap Minho in the face. Denz reared up, no doubt preparing to roast both the other dragon and the other man into a crisp, but the boy’s dragon intervened out of nowhere.

All of a sudden, Minho’s arm was being covered in a thick, dank moss. He looked down to see a red winged dragon snarling up at him from the floor. In the confusion, he’d completely ignored his former dance partner’s dragon, but here it was, furious at the violence. Even Minho, as mad as he was, had to admit it was pretty endearing. He sighed and just angrily pushed the moss from his sleeve.

“Just take the kid and get out of here,” he snarled, using a hand to press against his forehead and stabilize himself. He saw the stocky man’s arm going around the younger guy’s body, and they both stumbled out of the bar as Minho tried to go back to dancing and not ruin his own night.

He didn’t notice the way that Denz and the red dragon had locked eyes when the boy had exited the building. If he had, it might have saved him a lot of heartache in the future.

~

A/N—I love world-building so ing much.