“How many baby dragons did you say you adopted?”
It’s Viktuuri, I hope you don’t mind XD; I might come back and make edits later
“How many baby dragons did you say you adopted?” Viktor asked weakly.
“Only seventeen this time,” Yuuri chirruped. “And adopted isn’t exactly the right word, it’s more like… we took them in.”
“Ah, there are times when we accept more if we have the space and there’s been, say, a raid, or poaching,” the dragon keeper said, his smile fading.
“Oh, that’s awful,” Viktor said, scrambling to think of something, anything to say to put that genuine cheer back on Yuuri’s face again. “Oh, ah, what breed are they?”
“Greek house hydras.” Yuuri shook his head. “A whole box of them, just left outside in the cold!”
“They were never meant for this climate,” Yuuri continued. “We’ve already alerted the authorities. As soon as they’re old enough, they’ll be spayed and neutered and put up for adoption.”
Viktor nodded. “Can I– that is to say, may I see them? I’ve never seen baby hydras.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Yuuri said, face brightening again. “Mind you, they’re not standard or giant hydras, so they’re not very big.”
“I keep telling you to call me Viktor, please,” Viktor said, a bit of a whine creeping into his voice. “And I’m around big dragons all the time, I would love to see some tiny ones!”
“As you wish,” Yuuri said, blushing. Viktor didn’t know if Yuuri was agreeing to call him by his first name or show him small dragons.
They hurried through the facility, he and Yuuri greeting the staff as they went, until Yuuri stopped by a door.
“They’ll have to be quarantined here until the vet gives the okay. I know it’s not ideal,” Yuuri gave him an apologetic smile, “but we don’t want any potential diseases or parasites spreading around, so you’ll need to put on PPE again.”
“I understand completely, there’s no problem at all,” Viktor hastened to reassure him. A rack of personal protective equipment was available in front of every quarantine room. Yuuri showed him how to put the suit, boots, mask, and gloves on (Viktor was still having trouble with it) before donning his own PPE.
“All right, they might be sleeping, so keep quiet,” Yuuri said.
“My lips are sealed,” Viktor whispered.
Yuuri opened the door. Lining the walls of the room were enormous transparent tanks, each with its own ventilation system and temperature and humidity control; this way, the sanctuary could provide the optimal environment for any species that arrived. Viktor marveled at how Yuuri had helped design them. They walked past salamanders, miniature wyrms, and baby basilisks, and stopped in front of a cage containing a pile of small, storm-gray bodies basking on a rock underneath a sun lamp. What looked like a dozen hydras were dozing curled up around each other, each small enough to fit in Viktor’s hand (with the tail dangling off). The rest of them were hissing and wrestling in the shallow pool that took up half the tank. They all seemed to have three heads, though Viktor spotted one with four.
“They’re all gray now, but by the time they’re adults the males will have some flashy colored scales. I wonder what they’ll look like?” Yuuri mused.
“They’re beautiful,” Viktor couldn’t stop himself from gushing, “Oh Yuuri please, please can I hold one?”
“Sure, we need to socialize them anyway,” Yuuri said, and Viktor could tell he was smiling behind his mask. “I don’t want to disturb the ones that are sleeping, but it’s dangerous to get in the middle of a play fight, those fangs are sharp. Hold on.” Yuuri hurried to a large, stainless steel fridge, and came back with a tray of what smelled and looked like chopped up fish. “Fresh trout,” he explained, opening a circular panel in the front of the tank and dangling some food through it. At once, sixteen heads with beady black eyes swiveled towards Yuuri’s hand. There was a mad dash to get to the fish, and Yuuri hastily scattered pieces around the habitat so the babies wouldn’t fight with each other.
“Oh, we should have put them in separate cages,” Yuuri said as the hydras that had their fill started slithering up his arm; the ones that had been sleeping had all woken up to eat. “Darn it… I don’t suppose you could help me feed them?”
Viktor sprinkled the rest of the food into the cage as Yuuri tried to detach the baby hydras from his arm, rattling off facts about them all the while (they wouldn’t sprout any additional heads, contrary to popular belief they can’t breathe underwater, and their tails can grow back but certainly not their heads). “Here,” he said, holding a hydra in his open palm. It was the one with four heads; two of them were looking at Viktor, forked tongues flicking in and out, and the other two were stretching up to examine Yuuri. “Hold your hand out with some food, and it’ll come to you.”
Viktor did as he was instructed, and soon the little hydra was coiled around his wrist, seemingly content to stay there. Its snake-like heads were pushing on Viktor’s palm, where the fish had been. “I’m sorry, little ones,” he cooed, “but we’re all out.” He turned to look at Yuuri, who was juggling four hydras on two arms. “Yuuri, can we let the rest of them out?”
“What? All seventeen of them? I don’t think so,” Yuuri said.
“Pleeeease?” Viktor batted his eyelashes.
In the end, Viktor was able to wheedle Yuuri into letting ten out. Eight of them slithered over his prone form on the floor, while Viktor had one in each palm. “I think it’s been long enough, Your Highness, we should put them back to get some rest,” Yuuri said, though he made no effort to move. His eyes were smiling crescents under the mask.
“Mmmno, not until you say my name.”
Viktor extended his hands, and his pair of baby hydras joined the group writhing over Yuuri. Yuuri’s eyes widened.
“Nonono wait, okay, I’ll call you Viktor from now on, so please help me put them back? This is getting a little uncomfortable, they can squeeze pretty tightly you know. Viktor I won’t be able to fly with you and Makkachin this afternoon if they suffocate me under their weight. God, I’m going to smell like fish after this. Viktor–”
Viktor stifled his laughter; he was beginning to think that Yuuri’s voice uttering his name was the most beautiful sound he would ever hear, and Yuuri covered in adoring dragons the sweetest sight he would ever see, and he would happily let ten adult giant hydras pile on top of him to keep hearing and seeing it. As he helped Yuuri carefully sit up, mindful of all the tiny dragons, Viktor cast his own, fervent entreaty to the heavens. Please, just let me stay close to him.
