How to Be a Dragon Master

Kris’ mother told him right before he left home that if anything weird ever happened to him, he should call her right away. Four years later he could remember the look on her face when she’d said it; the set of her jaw, the fire in her eyes. She was rarely ever so serious about anything, and Kris never questioned her when she got like this. He didn’t crack a joke about how he’d rather call Ghostbusters, or ask what kinds of weird things she’d expected to happen to him in South Korea. Instead Kris nodded and promised to do so, because he was a good son and he trusted his mother.

Kris figured it didn’t get much weirder than waking up with a heavy weight on his chest and a pair of claws digging into his side. Careful not to move too much, he grabbed his phone from his bedside table and dialed his mother’s cell phone.

It was late in Canada, but she was still up. Kris cut off her greeting, speaking in a low, urgent tone.

“Mom, there is a dragon in my room.”

There is a second of silence, and then Kris yanks the phone away from his ear as his mother bursts into noisy tears. Now Kris is outright annoyed. His mother only cries when she’s so proud she can’t take it.

“Oh honey! You really were just a later bloomer after all!” She sobs. Sure enough, she sounds as proud as though he’d just announced a solution for world hunger.

“MOM!” Kris hisses, a little embarrassed at how she’s carrying on. A freaking dragon in her son’s room is nothing to be proud of!

She seems to catch on and he can hear her trying to calm herself down. “I’m sorry dear, it’s just…oh my baby is a dragon master! I’m so happy, I have to call your grandmother…”

“What am I going to do?” Kris demands, struggling to keep his voice down. So far the creature is still asleep, but who knows how long that will last.

His mother suddenly becomes very business-like. “Describe it for me. Is it very large? What color is it?”

Kris lifts his head off his pillow and tries to take in as much of the dragon as he can. “Um, it’s dark blue, maybe two and a half feet long, it has a long but very wide nose and…it’s furry.”

“White fur?” She gasps. “Around the ears and along the back?”

“Yes,” Kris answers.

“Huh,” his mother says after a moment. “Sounds like a Lěngshuǐ dragon. Rare for that climate, they like colder areas. Is it very, very dark blue?”

“I guess?” Kris has no idea what the difference really is.

“It’s probably a female then,” His mother mutters to herself. “Young too. Now,” She goes on, speaking a bit louder, “It’ll be important for you to keep her cool, feed her ice cubes and the like, especially in the mornings and at night since she’s likely to curl up with you when she sleeps—”

“Hold on!” Kris yelps. “You’re talking like I can keep it!!”

There is a long silence on the other end of the line. “Honey, I know this is a lot to take in, but I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.”

Kris resists the urge to bang his head against something. “It’s not a matter of choice! I’m a very busy person, I have people following my every move! I can’t take care of a dragon!!”

“You don’t need to take care of her,” His mother laughs. “Dragons can take care of themselves. All you need to do is love her.”

Kris looks down at the dragon again. “Mom,” and now he’s almost whining, “It can’t stay here! The managers, the company will kill me!”

She laughs again, this time though it sounds harsh. “Oh don’t worry dear, they’ll let you keep her.”

“But—”

“No more buts,” She interrupts, and it’s that tone; the one Kris has always dreaded, the one that says ‘I am taking no nonsense because I am always right.’

“I told you those stories about the dragon masters for a reason, and you remember what I said.”

Kris groans. “But that’s all they were supposed to be, stories!”

“Your company believed them,” She reminds him dryly. “Isn’t that why they gave you the Dragon mark?”

“That’s all fake,” He cries. “Yixing can’t heal things and Chanyeol isn’t a phoenix, and they only gave me the dragon mark because I told a few of the guys those stories and they called me The Dragon Master so it stuck!”

“Regardless, there is someone there who knows it’s true,” His mother says dismissively. “I will make some calls, and I will be able to come see you in a week. Take care of her until then, and we’ll talk when I get there.”

She continues to talk even as Kris began to protest. “She’ll eat fish and vegetables, if she gets fussy try filling a bathtub with cold water and letting her soak for a while. Most of all, be nice to the little thing, she’s still a baby.” And then she hangs up and Kris is left clinging to dead air.

“But I can’t take care of a dragon,” he repeats.

The creature picks that moment to wake up, uncurling from his chest and yawning, stretching it’s front legs out, claws snagging a bit in his quilts. Half of its body is on his chest, the other half draped across his bed. It looks down at him and sniffs his face.

Kris goes very still, berating himself for not asking if Lěngshuǐ were friendly. After a few seconds the dragon slides it’s feet onto his shoulders, pinning him to the bed, and starts to enthusiastically his face.

“Urgh,” Kris groans, turning his head away. “Knock it off! Stop it—EW.”

He clamps his mouth shut and sits up, knocking the beast into his lap. It stares up at him, feet folded on its belly, and blinks. Kris slaps the voice in his head that thinks it’s cute.

“Don’t get comfy,” He warns. “You’re not staying!”

The door opens and Kris panics, grabbing his pillow and throwing it on his lap, over the dragon.

Lu Han is standing in the doorway of their room, towel on his head.

“Manager-gege says get up because practice starts in—OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!”

The dragon has sneezed and propelled backwards off Kris’ lap, landing at the foot of his bed, where it blinks innocently at Kris and Lu Han.

Kris sighs and buries his face in his hands. “My worst nightmare.”

Forty minutes later eleven boys are crowded around Kris in EXO-M’s living room, watching the dragon make a mess trying to eat some lettuce and carrots.

“So…” Jongin starts, “Anyone else really connected with their power in real life?”

“Shut up,” Kris growls immediately. Of course everyone takes that as an opportunity to start talking.

“You really didn’t know it was true?” Joonmyun asks again.

“Of course not,” Kris replies (again). “But I’m starting to see that my mother is always right.”

“This is impossible,” Kyungsoo says faintly.

Zitao laughs. “There is a dragon in our apartment. How is it impossible?”

“Yeah, and Kris is a medium, and you thought that was fake too,” Yixing reminds everyone. They all nod, remembering how a year ago Kris had gotten the ghost out of f(x) sunbae-nim’s apartment.

“This is completely unrelated to that,” Kris says firmly. “I can buy the medium thing, I can deal with that, but this is just…ugh I can’t believe this!” He cries, startling everyone. “How could she possibly…oh my god, that snake!” he gasps, “That must be her dragon!”

“Um, what?” Chanyeol asks.

Kris runs his hand through his hair, tugging on the ends in frustration. “My mom has this snake, she’s had her for as long as I can remember, and it’s really small and bright red…but it’s not a snake it’s a dragon! Oh that’s not fair,” He growls, “She gets the little one and I get stuck with the freaking Labrador.”

He glares down at the dragon, who is busy bits of carrot off the floor.

Sehun speaks up. “So um…in the stories, you said dragon masters have a dragon that stays with them for their whole lives, their Spirit Dragon I think it was called? I guess then, it’s going to have to stay?”

Kris laughs hollowly. “Yeah right, like that could happen.”

“Why not?!” Chanyeol demands. “I think it could work! Look how small he is!”

“She,” Kris corrects. “And she’s a baby. She’s going to get bigger.”

“How much bigger?” Joonmyun asks nervously.

“I have no idea,” Kris shrugs, “But the females are always bigger than the males.”

Their managers bustle in and begin to shoo everyone out.

“The world hasn’t stopped,” they say firmly. Kris is the only one who has gotten out of practice today, everyone else whines about it as they are pushed out the door.

Home alone for the first time in years, Kris suddenly has no idea what to do with himself. He sits on the couch and watches the dragon scuttle around the house for a while; she slips on the tile floors and careens into a few walls. She’s pretty funny, but Kris refuses to laugh at her and stubbornly continues to find un-cute things about her.

“You aren’t staying,” he repeats. She jumps at the sound of his voice and looks up at him, tongue hanging out of like a puppy.

“No,” he repeats. “You can’t…”

She runs over and leaps onto his lap, nuzzling his arms and seemingly doing everything possible to be as cute as she can.

“Aw hell,” he mutters, relenting and petting her head. She makes a weird noise that has Kris jerking his hand back and grabbing his phone.

“Mom, she’s clicking at me!” He cries. The dragon jumps and falls off his lap. “What did I do, did I break her?”

His mother groans. “Honey, that’s normal!”

Kris relaxes only slightly. The dragon jumps back on the sofa and paws at his arm. Kris freaks out again.

“She’s touching me, she wants something, what does she want?!”

His mother laughs. “Sweetie, you can’t be calling me every five minutes. She probably just wants you to pet her. Did you give her some ice yet? She comes from a cold climate, she might be a little warm.”

“I’m not cut out for this,” Kris whines.

His mother sighs. “Remember when I was babysitting that little girl, and you used to help me take care of her all the time? Dragons aren’t much different from babies. Trust your instincts, experiment with her a bit, and don’t worry about hurting her. Dragons are tough, and she’ll let you know if she’s not happy. I have to go now, I’ll talk to you later.”

Kris grumbles about how that’s no help but the line is already dead. The dragon continues to paw at his arm and he pets her again. She stands on her hind legs and drapes herself over his shoulder, clicking again.

“Do you want to be carried or something?” Kris asks. He stands up, holding her as gently as he can. As he starts to walk, she clicks more rapidly and snuggles closer to him. Kris bites his lip and tries to remember why exactly having a dragon is a bad idea.

When the others get home from practice, Kris is sitting on the floor, flicking ice cubes across the tile for the dragon to chase and pounce on. She always plays with them for a few seconds before she gobbles them up.

“That’s so cool!” Jongdae cries. “I wanna try!”

Kris elbows him away. “Wait your turn,” he says, annoyed.

Jongdae pouts. “You’ve had her all day!”

“Too bad, she’s mine,” Kris retorts, pushing Jongdae over. He doesn’t like sharing.

*             *             *

Kris isn’t excused from practice forever, and so the next day he packs the dragon into a gym bag and carries her along with him to their usual rehearsal room. She sits in a corner and watches them dance, occasionally dropping off to sleep.

“So what’s her name?” Lu Han asks during one of their breaks.

Kris hasn’t really thought about it. “I don’t know, but she’s really clumsy so maybe I’ll just call her Wrecking Ball or something.”

Minseok gasps. “That’s awful! Pick a nice name!”

Kris rolls his eyes. “Somehow I doubt that she cares what I call her.”

But they continue to pester him, and finally an hour later he shrugs Yixing off of him and announces to the room, “Her name is Nemo, now stop bothering me for the love of god!”

“Nemo?” Jongin repeats. “But that’s a boy’s name!”

“Is not,” Kris fires back, “It’s both. And she’s shrimpy and weird so she’s Nemo.”

At the end of the day Kris is alone in the kitchen, feeding Nemo some canned tuna and tomatoes and listening to her happy clicking, and he reminds himself again that keeping a dragon is a Very Bad—

Nemo jerks up from her bowl, looking around wildly. Her body jumps a bit and she clicks loudly, alarmed.

“What the…did you give yourself the hiccups?” Kris asks as she jumps again. Her clicking sounds more distressed now but even so, Kris kind of wants to laugh at her.

“You gave yourself hiccups and now you’re afraid of them?” He laughs, holding out his arms. Nemo rushes over to him and burrows her face in his arms. She hiccups again and clicks sadly.

Kris pats her head. “It’s okay girl, you’re alright.” She looks up at him and noses at his chest, Kris carries her around the room and her back comfortingly. After a minute the hiccups subside and Nemo calms down, but when Kris tries to put her back on the floor she panics and digs her claws into his shirt.

“Okay, okay,” he relents. “It’s bedtime anyway.”

Lu Han is already asleep in the other bed, but Kris knows it’s damn near impossible to wake him up, so he’s not worried about keeping quiet. Just as she did the previous night, Nemo waits until Kris has pulled his blanket up to scurry on top of him and curl up on his chest. She’s not particularly heavy, the only thing Kris has to be careful of are her claws, which are small but needle sharp, and she has a tendency to scratch when Kris moves unexpectedly. He scratches along her jaw as he drifts off to sleep. He thinks he could get used to this, having a dragon curl up with him every night. It’s nice, it’s like having a dog again.

And then his throat constricts and tears come to his eyes. Nemo wakes up and clicks at him, his cheek.

Kris shoves her away. “Knock it off,” he commands weakly. She comes right back and hovers over him. Kris wants to push her away again, but instead he grabs her and pulls her closer, burying his face in the fur on her head.

“Sorry,” he mutters. “I know it’s not your fault.”

She just reminds him so much of his dog. When they moved to Canada, he was so lonely and he missed his friends terribly. For his birthday that year, his mom had taken him to the shelter and adopted Rocky, a two year old husky mix. When Kris moved to Korea he felt so guilty for leaving Rocky behind, and then five months ago his mom had called to say that Rocky had cancer and it was too late, he was too old to fight it and the best thing to do was to end it.

Kris bit back a sob. He felt so guilty for not being there, even though his mom had stayed. He hated that he couldn’t have helped his pet, that he couldn’t have been there for Rocky the same way Rocky had been for him. It didn’t matter that he was a dog, he was still a part of Kris’ family. And now Nemo is part of his family, and it just reminds him so much of Rocky that sometimes it hurts to look at her and think about his dog and wonder if the same thing will happen to her.

Nemo clicks and his face again, and Kris hugs her tightly.

“I know,” he whispers. “I know it wasn’t my fault but it still hurts.”

Nemo settles down and Kris falls asleep soon after. When he wakes up he takes a moment to pet Nemo’s head and comb his fingers through her fur. She really is adorable and Kris would be lying if he said he didn’t love her already, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was replacing Rocky.

Frustrated and confused, he calls his mother and spills the story to her. She pauses for a while before speaking.

“I didn’t even know you felt that way…oh Kevin, Rocky understood. He was a smart dog, he knew you were there with him in spirit.”

Kris almost breaks down again, but holds himself together as his mother continues.

“And he knows you’re not replacing him. In fact I’m sure he’d be happy to know that you were taking Nemo in. Just as Rocky needed a home, so does Nemo. She needs you as much as you need her.”

A few minutes later Lu Han comes back from taking a shower and Kris sits up, wiping his face.

“Are you okay?” Lu Han asks, resting his hand on Kris’ shoulder. “Do you need a minute?”

Kris clears his throat. “No, I’ll be alright.”

Nemo looks up at him and his hand. Kris pets her head and smiles down at her. It may take a little more time, but he’ll be alright.

*             *             *

On the fourth day since waking up with a dragon in his bed, Kris is a little up the wall about what to do with said dragon.

“Maybe she wants to party,” Chanyeol suggests as Nemo waddles around in circles, clicking rapidly. Kris shoots him a glare and growls.

“I just don’t know what she wants,” Kris moans, wringing his hands. She’s obviously unhappy, but she’s not hungry or thirsty and when Kris tries to pick her up she squirms until he puts her down again.

“Well, there is one thing I can try,” Kris mutters. He scoops Nemo up and carries her into the bathroom. The bathtub isn’t very big, but it will have to do. He fills it with a few inches of cold water and plops Nemo down in it. She clicks loudly, but it sounds more like a squeal of happiness. She turns around and stands on her hind legs, splashing back down. Kris turns the water on again and she stands under the faucet, biting at the stream and looking surprised when she can’t catch it. Kris is mesmerized by her, watching her play and jump around. Eventually he snaps out of his daze and runs into the hallway.

“Guys, you have to see this!”

Everyone manages to get a glimpse of the dragon playing in their bathtub, even their managers take a peek. Everyone agrees, it’s the cutest thing they’ve ever seen. After almost an hour of playing, Nemo hops out of the tub and Kris dries her off, playing around by throwing the towel over her and watching her try to throw it off.

Nemo is exhausted that night and falls asleep in Kris’ arms as he carries her into his and Lu Han’s room. Lu Han eyes him as he get into bed and settles Nemo next to him.

“So, is she staying?” Lu Han asks.

Kris sighs. “Do you honestly think it can work?”

Lu Han walks over and sits on the edge of Kris’ bed. He pets Nemo gently and even in her sleep she clicks happily.

“I think you’re going to have twelve very sad boys on your hands if you don’t try it,” Lu Han answers after a moment.

Kris sighs, because he expected that.

“Let’s hope when my mother gets here she can help settle things with the company,” he mutters. For now that’s all they can hope for.

*             *             *

In fact this is the first time any of the other members are meeting his mother, Kris realizes. And it’s already too late to warn them about her, because she’s at the door. He can’t even get out a word before she barrels in and heads straight for him. For a few seconds, he just lets himself be hugged by his mother.

“It’s been too long,” she whispers as she pulls back. She his hair and smiles at him. “I am so proud of you dear, we all are.”

And then she spots Nemo and practically throws him aside.

“There’s the precious little girl!” She cries, kneeling down and flinging her arms out. Nemo rushes at her and leaps into her arms, her face and neck.

“Oh yes you precious little angel, you’re so cute, yes you are!” She coos, and Nemo snuggles into her.

“So uh, mom,” Kris says after a minute of continued cooing, “These are my bandmates, um I think you know who all of them are—”

“Yes of course I do,” She interrupts, still holding the dragon as she stands up. She looks around the room and smiles at everyone. “How are you all getting along with the little monster?”

“We love Nemo,” Joonmyun says quickly, “She’s not—”

“She meant me,” Kris interrupts, glowering at his mother. Everyone laughs.

“Okay, then yeah, he’s a monster,” Jongin teases. Kris flicks him on the ear.

“Well as for this one,” Kris’ mother continues, “She’s definitely a girl, less than a year old but probably half-grown. She’ll be about as big as a large dog when she’s full grown. She looks to be in perfect health, but her nails are a bit sharp, Kevin remind me later I’ll teach you how to cut them properly. Don’t worry about paying for her food yourself, I’ll send you money for that.”

“Whoa,” Kris interrupts. “You’re doing that thing again where you talk like I’m going to be able to keep her.”

His mother stares at him in shock. “Of course you can keep her! Darling I smoothed that over an hour after you called me the first time.”

Kris gapes at her, along with the other eleven boys in the room. “But, then what did you come here for?”

She grins at him. “Well, when there’s a dragon involved I get special flight privileges from the Dragon Master committee. I can go anywhere in the world and not pay for it, so of course I jumped at the chance to see my sons.”

She’s been speaking in a mixture of English and Chinese, but almost everyone catches the plurality of the statement.

“Your mom is amazing,” Yixing says later. She’s been hanging out in their apartment for a few hours now, talking and hugging everyone and being the mother figure they’ve all missed. Kris is so happy to have her with them, even if it’s only for a little while.

Before she goes back to her hotel for the night, she pulls Kris aside for a Serious Talk.

“I know you were nervous earlier this week,” she begins. “And if you still are, I can take Nemo back with me for a little while.”

Kris shakes his head. “No, I’m ready for her. I want her.”

His mother smiles at him. “I knew you would. You’re going to be a brilliant Dragon Master, I just know it.”

Kris suddenly remembers what he wanted to ask her.

“So now, does this mean I’m going to have to do things for dragons? You know, the same way these ghosts find me and harass me?”

Her gaze hardens and Kris groans inwardly because now he’s triggered her Mother Mode.

“The Dragons won’t pester you nearly as much, don’t worry; and they won’t approach you when there are other people around. Now tell me more about these ghosts,” her gaze sweeps the room. “Where are they? Who is bothering my son?!”

“Never mind,” Kris yells quickly. “Just go back to your hotel, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

As he pushes her out the door, she yells over her shoulder, “I’ll bring the Cross and the Holy water with me next time!”

*             *             *

It takes some getting used to, taking care of a baby Dragon. Kris sneaks Nemo to rehearsals in his bag and she watches them dance, sometimes it looks like she tries to imitate them. She’s still getting a hold of the whole flight thing, every now and then when Kris takes her up on the roof to practice she’ll crash into the satellite dish. Even so, when they fly overseas for the first time after Nemo showed up, Kris unlocks the door to his hotel room and finds her sitting on his bed, clicking happily. He doesn’t get how she could be faster than an airplane, but then again it’s not like she has to check her bags or anything.

“You know,” Sehun says one night as he throws ice cubes for Nemo, “In a weird way, I don’t think this is the strangest thing that’s ever happened to us.”

It’s weird, but Kris kind of agrees. There’s nothing strange about Nemo’s presence in their dorm, it’s completely normal to be greeted after a long day by having a dragon run to greet you at the door and nearly knock you down as she leaps into your arms. Of course it is.

Nemo gulps down her last ice cube and waddles over to Kris, settling in his lap. She’s gotten about a foot longer and a few inches wider, but she’s hardly any heavier due to her hollow bones. Kris his hand from her head to her tail and she clicks softly, almost like she’s purring. Sehun scoots over and scratches behind her ears, smiling at her.

“I’m really glad that she’s staying,” he says softly.

Kris nods. “Yeah, so am I. Even if she does cause the TV to go out sometimes.”

Okay so according to Google translate, Lěngshuǐ means "cold water," IDK my Chinese isn't that advanced yet so I hope it's right.
Also sorry for the sad part about the dog...that made me cry.
Hope you enjoyed reading!