But.
But a drinking game.
To Lord of the Rings.
Sora wasn’t sure how well that would go. “And we’re taking shots to…?”
“Every time the main theme song is played,” Ravi said, ticking each rule off on his fingers, “they do a panoramic view with the camera, or the ring is mentioned.”
As expected. That gut feeling was dead on. “Wait, we’re going to be drunk in fifteen minutes with those rules!”
“Usually takes most people thirty.” Ravi’s grin didn’t abate; rather, he added an outrageous eyebrow waggle. “Unless you’re a lightweight.”
“I am not. But I’m beginning to think you’re going to drink me under the table. You do remember that your metabolism is faster than mine? That you can process alcohol at twice the speed I can?”
Ravi pretended to think about this. “I can give you a handicap.”
That was apparently as good an offer as Sora would get. But he couldn’t back down. He didn’t want to. He wanted to meet the challenge in Ravi’s eyes.
“Alright, dragon, you’re on.”
“That’s the spirit!” Ravi sprung up, a whirling dervish as he went for the bar. “I’ll get drinks, you get comfy.”
Sora headed for the bean bags, oversized that they were, and hoped he’d eaten enough to be able to process the truly ungodly amount of alcohol he was about to consume.
Ravi came to him, handed him a tray with glasses lined up neatly in a row, then deviated long enough to flip on the projector and start the film. Holding the tray off to the side, Sora gave him room to climb in. Of course, it being a bean bag, Ravi ended up close, hip pressed into Sora’s.
In an overexaggerated manner, he cooed, “Ooh-la-la.”
Sora snickered, shaking his head. This man was so incorrigible. “I hope you’re comfortable.”
“I am perfect, thanks for asking. Now, pass the booze.”
Alright, he wasn’t going to let this man lead him around by the nose all evening. Sora situated the tray first, but then he slid an arm around Ravi’s shoulders, getting them both comfortable. Ravi leaned into the hold with an almost audible purr, the happy rumble dragons made when blissfully content.
Oh.
Oh, he made Ravi happy, too? That knowledge went straight to his head, swelling it.
Sora usually felt so awkward and out of joint with people on dates. He’d never been on one like this, where he enjoyed his date’s company even as he thrilled at every touch. It was so perfectly fun and enjoyable, with no judgements being made even as he confessed to little sins.
And then there was the way this amazing man looked at him, as if he were delighted to spend time with Sora. It was indeed a very heady feeling. One Sora had never experienced before.
His parents had always bemoaned his lack of partner and asked repeatedly what it was he hoped to find, why he didn’t like the people he’d tried to date. Sora hadn’t been able to explain it to them. Just that there was something lacking. Comfort, trust, attraction—usually his date fell short in some way or another.
Tonight, he had no such complaints. This was all too perfect. For once, Sora wasn’t eyeing the door and wondering how to gracefully extract himself. He wanted this night to continue. And a repeat, however soon he could manage it. Which was very telling, as he’d never wanted that before.
Could…Ravi possibly be…?
“Ooh, we have main theme song!” Ravi lifted a drink from the tray. “Bottoms up!”
The thought broke, and Sora blinked back into the present. He took a glass and clinked it against Ravi’s. “Bottoms up.”
Enjoy tonight, he mentally chastised himself. You can always think later. And every moment with Ravi should be enjoyed.
Hopefully he wouldn’t get so drunk he’d forget half the evening. Although, at the rate they were planning to consume alcohol, Sora didn’t give that high odds.
Sora smiled to see Ravi jogging toward him, his eyes aglow with some hidden delight and his face a little flushed. He was dressed in a dark button-down shirt and black slacks. Sora was beginning to think this was Ravi’s work uniform, as he always seemed to be wearing it while protecting the king and running errands for him around the castle. The colors seemed too somber for the perky dragon, but they did nothing to dampen his cheerful demeanor.
In the past four days, Sora had met dozens of dragons, but not one of them made his heart skip a beat the way it did when he saw Ravi smiling at him.
“Sora!” Ravi crowed. “Just the mage I was looking for. Wait, how did you escape Lisette?”
Sora shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans. “I basically took a break for the afternoon. They’re covering first-level spells; it’s not something I need to be there for. Why, did you need me?”
“Something like that. You got a minute to give me a hand with a critical mission?”
Sora blinked at him, excited at the thought of spending more time with the dragon. But there was something about Ravi’s expression that had him questioning Ravi’s definition of critical. “Sure. What can I do?”
Ravi threaded his arm through Sora’s and turned him toward the hallway. He looked around before finally settling on a door. Pulling Sora along, Ravi dipped inside what proved to be a small sitting area with tall windows looking out on a thick forest. The bright blue sky was steadily darkening toward evening, and Sora could see hints of orange slipping into the horizon as the sun set.
Ravi released him as he closed the door behind them. “So, I know you met Gunter.”
Sora had met so many people that it took a second to recall him. “Yes, he’s the king’s lead researcher and historian, right? Blond hair and glasses?”
“Yep. That’s him. Though, I like to call him Alric’s librarian. Incredibly smart dragon. He tries to keep the clan’s entire history locked away in his head. But he has a problem that Hoheit has charged me with helping him sort out.”
“What’s that?”
Ravi paced the room as if he had too much energy to even attempt to stand still. “Gunter doesn’t like to leave his books. He stays locked away in his dungeon.”
Sora felt his eyes go wide and his mouth fall open. “You actually have a dungeon here? I know it’s a castle, but I hadn’t thought—”
“No! No!” Ravi said quickly, waving his hands as he rushed across the room to Sora’s side. “I mean, we do have some cells we could use if someone were to do something really bad, but they haven’t been used for that in centuries. I think there’s a couple casks of whiskey in there right now that someone is trying their hand at brewing. No, I teasingly call the royal library the dungeon because it’s a room without windows and it’s on the lower level.”
He paced away from Sora again, waving his hand. “Gunter said something about the sunlight being bad for the old documents.”
Sora released a heavy sigh of relief. “Oh, good.”
“Good for books. Bad for dragons. Gunter forgets to shift and fly. His dragon gets grumpy, and then he gets grumpy, and no one wants to be around him when he’s grumpy. Hoheit worries about Gunter.”
“And if you get Gunter to fly, then the king won’t worry,” Sora filled in.