Chapter 4
Milo
A freaking lunatic. Their lives, their home, their future, and their security were in the hands…claws…whatever, of a lunatic!
He dropped the dragon’s tie like it had burned him and stepped away shaking his head.
“You’re clinically insane. Which is great, now that I think about it, because I’m about to sue you for all you’re worth for allowing someone delusional to run this project. To tear down buildings and make people homeless.”
He stared at the confused faces of the people in the room, waiting for someone to acknowledge the very real concern he had brought up, but they all seemed completely chill about whatever mental issues the red assdragon had.
“You just flashed your eyes at me,” the dragon—Rowan, Milo remembered from the name on the order—said, still staring him down, making him feel like he was being picked apart just by being looked at.
“The only thing I may have flashed you is the finger, you absolute lunatic.” Milo held the aforementioned finger in the air and waved it in Rowan’s face. For emphasis. And dramatic effect. He liked making an impact. Sue him. Wait…no.
“I”—he corrected his own thought out loud—“will be the one doing the suing.”
“What?” Rowan asked, going cross-eyed looking at the middle finger still stupidly close to his nose. A nose that was breathing out very hot, very unnaturally visible air onto Milo’s finger.
He froze for a moment, because losing a finger was definitely not on his agenda today, or ever, and made a very elegant swooping gesture to remove it from danger before speaking again. The shivers were from fear of losing an appendage, not because the hot air actually felt very nice on his skin.
“The building stays,” he said to Rowan. “Or this goes to court.”
“You can’t afford to sue this company,” someone said from behind Rowan.
Milo scowled. “I’ve been told I have a mouth people would pay for.”
“Yeah, to shut up,” the unknown, very rude man said, and Milo bristled for a moment before deciding it truly didn’t matter. He had the upper hand. He was the one in control now. He had it all fixed, just like he’d promised everyone he would.
“You have been warned,” he said to Rowan before storming out of the room. They didn’t even tip.
Asshole dragons.
He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed the first number in his favorites, glaring at everyone he walked past because they’d all sold their souls to the evil dragons in suits tearing people’s homes down.
Ray picked up on the third ring. “Yes?”
“I am a genius!” Milo told his best friend, although he didn’t really think he needed to say it.
Ray had known him for years. Truly, he was the best thing to have come out of the whole Andrew fiasco.
The other boyfriend, the other life Andrew had been leading, and now Milo’s brother in all the ways that mattered.
He was well aware of just how clever Milo could be.
“Sure.” Ray didn’t sound very convinced, which…rude.
“I just saved our building!”
Still, Ray sounded underwhelmed. “Again?”
Milo scowled. So he’d made some less than successful attempts in the past. How was he to know they’d actually test the water for toxins instead of abandoning the project out of fear?
“I mean it this time,” he said. “I’ve really saved it!”
That brought Ray up to speed with the Milo worship.
“That’s wonderful news!” Ray said. Milo heard paper rustling, which meant Ray was putting his book away to give Milo his full attention. “Tell me everything.”
“So you know how I chained myself to a tree and all that?”
“Please don’t remind me.” Ray sighed deeply. He reserved those specifically for Milo, which, if he was being honest, was quite hurtful considering his dating history consisted of NOTHING but men who deserved long-suffering sighs. But no. Apparently, Ray saved all of his for Milo.
“PleAsE doN’t RemINd me,” Milo said, striding through the revolving door out of Rowan’s building, turning to face it once he was out to give it another, parting middle finger. Take that. “It worked, so you can say you’re sorry for doubting me now.”
“I never doubted you, Milo.” Ray took a long pause before adding, “I just question your actions sometimes.”
“All the time. You suck. Whatever, so he came while I was chained and I explicitly told him he was not allowed to tear our building down and he packed up his crew and left.”
“Just like that?”
“…I might have bitten him.”
“You bit him,” Ray repeated.
“That wasn’t my best moment. But his arm was there and he was being a dick, and literally my teeth were like ‘DO IT!’”
“An excellent reason to bite someone,” Ray said, sarcasm making his voice higher.
“He left, so it worked. It’s been quiet since yesterday.” Milo shrugged as he got into his delivery car then connected his phone to the speakers so he could drive. “Anyway, I went to work today and made a delivery. TO HIM!!”
“What?” Ray asked as Milo swerved in front of another delivery car, cutting in to catch a green light. The other guy honked at him. “Please don’t kill any other drivers.”
“But you’re fine with me dying?” Milo asked.
“I always thought you’d go young, so…I’m prepared to lose you.”
Why he was even keeping Ray around, Milo had zero clue. “Fuck you, man,” Milo said. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”
“I do, yes.”
“So I deliver the food and get into it with him again. And as we’re arguing, he, like…gets all up in my face and tells me… OMG you need to sit down for this.”
“I am sitting down,” Ray said.
Milo heard glass clinking. “You are not sitting down.”
“I’m leaning against my counter. Spill.”
“HE TELLS ME I’M A DRAGON!” Milo screeched into the phone, expecting gasps and shock from his friend.
“Okay?” Ray said instead.
“What do you mean okay? He told me I’m a dragon.” Milo turned the car into the parking lot of the restaurant, trying to avoid the automated claw sharpening machine they had at the edge of it.
“You are a dragon,” Ray said, and Milo absolutely failed at avoiding the sharpener. He stopped the car so suddenly he gave himself whiplash.
“What?” Milo said.
Ray hummed. “You literally are a dragon.”
“No, I’m not!”
Ray paused before sighing. Again. Seriously what the hell.
“I know it’s a sore spot and you don’t like talking about it, so I’m not gonna mention it anymore,” Ray said. “So how did you get him to stop the demolition?”
“Wait, wait,” Milo said. “The fuck do you mean sore spot? I don’t have a sore spot.”
“Babe…” Ray said. Which was bad. He only baby-talked Milo when he was being particularly dumb or difficult. “You have a horrible opinion about your own species, the internalized dragon-hate is strong, and you never, ever, ever shift on purpose, or even allude to the fact that you’re a dragon.”
“Because I’m not!” Milo said. “Is this a joke? Are you in on this with that jackass? Because I can’t believe you would betray me like this, man, I thought we were friends.”
“Wait… Milo, are you serious?” Ray asked.
“About what?” Milo gripped the steering wheel harder because he could feel a panic attack building.
“About—you do know you’re a dragon, Milo, right?” Ray said.
Milo’s head was spinning a little bit. Had someone washed the windshield lately? Was getting kinda blurry.
“I’m not a dragon,” Milo said. “I’ve never been a dragon.”
“But…you are. You have the eyes and the scales, sometimes. I never said anything when I saw it because I realized you didn’t like talking about it and I didn’t want to trigger whatever trauma it brought back.”
“There is no trauma.” Milo tried to read the neon sign of his workplace and failed. It looked like it was in a different language. “No dragon, either.”
“Milo…”
“I have to go. Work.”
“Milo, wait—”
Milo cut the call and shook his head. All of them were insane.
He got out of the car and went inside on autopilot, walking straight into the staff bathroom and leaning against the sink. He stared at himself in the mirror, at eyes still that same electric blue. Human. His skin still the same pale, almost translucent color. Human.
He was human.
So they could all just shove their stupid theories.
He pushed himself off the sink and walked back out, picked up his orders, and drove on autopilot until the end of his shift.
He returned the delivery car and splashed some water onto his very human, very non-scaly face before switching uniforms and rushing to catch a bus to his next job, only stopping to grab an energy drink.
The bar he worked in three nights a week was just a few stops away from the wing place. It made it easy for him to hop over without being late all the time. He walked in and went into the back room to drop off his stuff and catch his breath before his shift started.
He slammed another energy drink before pulling his phone out to ring Ethel to see how they were holding up.
“Is—”
“We’re all still alive, Milo,” Ethel said before he could even get a word in. “Doctors’ appointments done, dinner eaten, meds taken. Glenn is back from the library and we’re just gonna play some cards before going to bed.”
Milo sighed in relief. “No demolition crew sightings?”
She tsked. “The bite must have scared them off.”
He laughed, but he knew it sounded forced and she’d see straight through it.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, and he shook his head like she could see him.
“Nothing, it’s all good.” He tried perking up but failed miserably.
“I will poison your soup. What is it?”
“I delivered food to the dragon jackass today. We got into it, exchanged words, and he called me a dragon.”
“Mhm…” she said. Just as calmly. Just as matter-of-factly as Ray had.
“Ethel, I’m not a dragon!”
“And I’m not a geriatric, spiteful old lady who’d stab a bitch with a knitting needle. Of course you’re a damn dragon, boy!”
“If I’m a dragon, how am I only now finding out?”
“Apparently you’re dumb as a rock.”
“I’m not dumb! I’m just not a dragon and I don’t know why everyone keeps saying I am.”
“Who’s everyone?”
“Rowan, Ray,” Milo said. “Now you.”
“Well, it’s three against one.”
“This isn’t a democracy! My species is not for you to vote on.”
“It is when you’re being obtuse, boy. And why does it matter, anyway? It changes nothing about who you are.”
“Do the rest of the house know too?” he asked and she hummed. He closed his eyes, digging his nails into the rough material of his jeans.
“They hate dragons,” he whispered.
“Please,” she scoffed. “Clarence hates himself in the morning and the rest of the world in the afternoon. Glenn barely knows who he is half the time and Conrad is gullible as fuck. He doesn’t hate anyone.
Shelly loves you beyond whatever prejudice she has against dragons.
Which is none. She just wants to look quirky. ”
“How the fuck is this even possible?” Milo covered his eyes with his hand.
“You don’t know your parents, Milo,” she said, tone softening now. “And you’ve never shifted or shown it much. I think we all just collectively assumed it was too painful for you and you’d learned to keep it in. We never thought you actually didn’t know.”
“This is insane.”
“A little bit, yeah. But no more insane than working three jobs to support five geriatric randos, chaining yourself to a tree to save their home, and biting the dragon CEO of one of the biggest construction companies in the world. So…I’d say it’s very on-brand.”
“Shut up.”
“No thanks. Do you want to take the night off?”
“We need the tips.”
“We’ll make do, Milo. You don’t have to kill yourself for us.”
“I could use a distraction anyway,” he said. “Call me if you need me.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She hung up.
“Fucking hell,” he whispered, running a hand through his messy hair before standing up to clock in.
He walked out and headed behind the bar, head reeling.
He stared at his hands as if they might break free of his brain’s control and just claw his own face off.
He kept glancing at himself in reflective surfaces, looking for any sign of this supposed dragonhood everyone knew about.
He saw nothing. Just boring, human Milo.
He made drinks on autopilot.
He smiled at customers and answered their questions without actually processing any of them.
Until…
“How many jobs do you have?”
That fucking voice.
Notes:
This just occurred to us: Ray and Milo are a lot like the two of us.
M is the overly emotional, melodramatic one and A is usually very level-headed and reasonable.
Sometimes we joke that M is the idea-haver and A is the make-surer that the ideas make any sort of sense and work for whatever story we’re writing.
We didn’t plan for the similarities, but it’s fun now that we see them.