Wrapped up in one of the few blankets that had not at some point been born apart by the hatchlings, Yifan at least appeared to be sleeping peacefully which was a relief to Suho as he knelt carefully down next to the youngster in order to brush a few stray strands of hair out of his forehead and check his temperature with his fingers. It had been an awful long time since he had been in human form, since the days before he could really remember and suddenly having to cope with two legs, a balance that was constantly shifting and a slight change in his perception was something that he wished that he had practiced a little more often.

To an outsider, Suho looked to be a fairly ordinary human. He was of average height with a build that was carefully hidden under the folds of a robe which was too far on the large side for him but it would pass for now – no one had bothered to point out the small fact that he had it on inside out and backwards for fear of upsetting their dragon leader. The things that marked him as being distinctly not human were the glistening blue streaks in his black hair which was worn long and in a very loose pony tail, the way his eyes colour appeared to be like that of the sun reflecting off the surface of a pool and his ears had blue little frills which Tao had found adorable.

The only good thing Suho had found about that was that the hatchling was now preoccupied with trying to make himself human too which was a feat that Suho doubted he’d manage to any great success. Not every dragon could assume a human form, generally it was never needed so most never bothered but there always had to be an exception to the rule. Since this was the Isle of the Dragons and the home of the Dragon Prince, it made perfect sense that each of them had a human form. Because why display all of your power at once when sometimes it was better to keep a few select cards close to your chest, as one Prince had been noted to saying. Tao however was still a hatchling and would probably take a few more years to properly obtain a human form but it kept the little squirt occupied which was a relief to Suho.

They had enough trouble trying to pry Sehun off Yifan or ‘Mine’ as he insisted on calling the Dragon Prince, and now the rainbow coloured youngster was in a huff somewhere nearby because Xiumin had dragged him off. Yifan, having been rather overwhelmed by everything, had promptly fainted and without having any other explanation than it always fell to him, Suho had taken on his human form in order to carry the boy into a place of safety and security to be tended to by Yixing when the white dragon remembered how to take his own form.

A fond smile crossed Suho’s human face as he gently the slumbering figures hair, “I hope you can cope with us, we’re a rather unique bunch of dragons I’m afraid.”

Softly Yifan stirred in his sleep, cuddling closer to the hand that was petting him and Suho couldn’t help but feel just a little bit of affection growing in his heart. Such a sweet boy like this did not deserve what he had probably already gone through but he knew that he would be fine now. They were a family after all and once they had all inevitably accepted him, there would be no break in that line which was sure to mend the tears in his heart.

A groan emitted from the boy as he uncurled and stretched, long limbs already beginning to show to suggest a tall figure when he fully reached maturity and that made Suho smile just a little bit brighter because that was how he had always imagined a Prince of Dragons to be. He had been too young to remember the last one well but when he had read up the tales he always imagined that the Prince would be a tall, handsome figure who would strike people dumb just by his appearance alone.

Slowly the light brown eyes opened and fists pawed at the eyes to brush away the effects of sleep in a cute fashion before there came the expected stillness as Yifan caught sight of Suho.

The water dragon smiled, “You’re perfectly safe and fine, my Prince, I merely brought you inside to rest after you passed out on us.”

Yifan blinked, staring at the human with wonder before he carefully pushed himself to a sitting position and shook his head, “I am no Prince, I have never been one my whole life so why should I believe you?”

Suho smiled, liking the fight held within the others heart over this rather odd situation, “In the human realm you may have been disregarded by all save a select few but here you are indeed a prince and nothing is going to change that fact. You will come to accept it but I understand that right now, everything will seem to be a little bit on the...” he paused to think of the correct word and pulled an expression which almost had Yifan laughing.

Though a few seconds later, he burst into little giggles as he took a moment to observe the other, “Forgive me, Mister Dragon, but you’re wearing that outfit wrong.”

“Am I?” Suho looked down at himself, thinking that there was nothing wrong with the way that he was dressed, “I thought this was the correct way.”

“No, it’s not,” Yifan continued to giggle, glad he was not being reprimanded, “This is the back and you’re supposed to tie it in front of yourself.”

Suho blinked, “Really? How?”

A blank stare came his way, “You don’t know how to wear Hanfu?”

Suho shook his head, “It’s been a long time since I wore human clothes, my Prince.”

“Please don’t call me that,” Yifan said, shaking his head as he shuffled forward towards the other, “Just call me Yifan. Everyone else does.”

Nodding his head, Suho smiled, “Only as long as you call me Suho and not Mister. Dragon. That sounds way too old fashioned and silly.”

“Agreed Suho,” Yifan replied with his own smile, “Now let me help you get dressed properly. Honestly even little children can manage to dress themselves properly, how can you not?”

Instead of replying, Suho allowed Yifan to do his work and followed the instructions perfectly. Once Yifan was happy with the way that the other looked, he leaned back on his ankles and smiled towards the dragon, “There, you look a whole lot better now.”

Looking down at himself, Suho had to agree and he smiled towards Yifan, “Thank you.”

The youngster baulked a little at that remark and lowered his head, hands resting naturally in his lap and an aura of fear seeping out of him. Suho nearly panicked but somehow managed to contain himself and softly he reached forward to place his hands upon the other’s shoulders, “You don’t have anything to fear, Yifan, you are home and no one here will mistreat you in any way what so ever.”

Yifan shook his head, “But I don’t understand! I’m just a... I’m nothing. I am not a warrior nor a diplomat or anything that a dragon could use in the slightest.”

“You taught me how to dress,” Suho pointed out, trying to be helpful.

“That’s not a qualification in anything,” Yifan whined, hanging his head as he could feel a headache coming on thick and fast.

Suho shook his head, “It actually is Yifan. I mean, do you know any other boys who would willingly sit in front of a dragon, giggle at them for dressing wrongly and then assist in helping them to dress properly even though they were potentially in mortal danger for offending a dragon in the first place?”

“I offended you?” Yifan asked, latching on to the wrong point of the message Suho was trying to convey but before Suho could begin to explain there came a yelp from behind and all too familiar flash of rainbow burst through unexpectedly and floored the pair of them.

Sehun was quick to untangle himself and latch immediately onto Yifan, hissing slightly towards Suho with an almost growled out, “Mine!”

Before Suho could reprimand the other though, a sharp tap was delivered straight to Sehun’s nose by Yifan who was not looking best pleased. “Don’t be rude to Suho, tell him your sorry.”

“Mine?” Sehun went, clearly this being the only word that the young hatchling could form now but the message was easy to convey.

Yifan stared straight back at the rainbow dragon, “I was helping Suho to get dressed, you did not have to get jealous over that fact. Now tell him that you’re sorry and mean it.”

The wide eyes of the rainbow dragon went even wider and a pout formed but Yifan just continued to stare down the other until finally the fight went out of the youngster. Sehun lowered his head towards Suho and bowed slow, “mine.”

The word was elongated out and clearly very sad which had Suho desperate to fight back a grin because no one had been able to ever tame Sehun and the elder dragons tended to spoil him a fair bit as was. Suho quickly nodded, “Apology accepted Sehun. Now if only we can get you saying something else other than ‘mine’ all the time things would be so much easier.”

Sehun raised his eyes up towards the elder dragon before turning to look at the boy he claimed constantly as ‘mine’ before lightly nudging him with his snout. Yifan blinked but got the general idea after a few seconds, “Oh, my name is Yifan.”

For a few second the rainbow dragon contemplated it and then smiled brightly, “Yifan mine!”

This time Suho did burst into laughter but he could hear it echoing back from Yixing who had finally made an appearance after having remembered how to change to a human and had pushed aside the rock which was covering the entrance to this smaller cave which had allowed Sehun the opportunity to charge in like a crazy fool.

Yifan looked at him confused and Suho shook his head with a bright smile, “And you say that you’re not the Dragon Prince. I think you most certainly are, my lord.” 

authors babbling: hi guys! I am still alive as you can tell but life has been pretty crazy the last few weeks with my mam and other things but everything is all right now and I've gotten around to a chapter update. A shorter chapter than the others but god damn it, Sehun you are just too freaking adorable as a dragon. Don't ask me why but he is. 

Hope this was worth the wait and see you all again soon